By ANTONIO L. COLINA IV
DAVAO CITY – Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the Marawi City is poised to become a major tourist destination upon completion of the recovery and rehabilitation program in the war-torn city.
Roque said the government will no longer rebuild the destroyed buildings near Agus River but these will be flattened out to give way for the construction of a promenade.
The spokesman said title holders will be allowed to rebuild their homes but those without titles will have to wait for the actions of Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
“The recovery efforts are going to flatten the most affected area, as I said, they will widen infrastructure, build a four-way road, it’s going to be major tourist destination,” Roque said in a media briefing here Monday.
There were at least 55 barangays out of 96 barangays in Marawi that were affected by armed clashes between government forces and Islamic State-inspired Maute Group that lasted nearly five months.
“Bulk of the land in Marawi especially in mostly affected areas is covered by military reservation. Now, the President had ordered the AFP to finalize how much land they would require so the excess land can be given to the residents of Marawi,” said Roque.
Prominent Filipino architect Felino “Jun” Palafox said a good master plan will attract new investors to Marawi City and has recommended to government that some of the war-damaged areas in Marawi be preserved as “a remembrance and an urban laboratory for mistakes it made in developing a city.”
Palafox said the urban planners can draw inspiration from the Hiroshima, Japan, despite being annihilated by an atomic bomb during World War II, has continued to receive a number of tourists.
The architect proposed to build new city centers in Marawi and even envisioned new cities around the scenic Lake Lanao, similar to Lake Geneva that is bounded on both sides by Switzerland and France, and comparable to the “best cities in the world – safer, sustainable, Islamic, international, inclusive, smarter, more resilient, more environment-friendly like no overhead wires.”