DAVAO CITY (April 25) — President Rodrigo R. Duterte commended the Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) for building resilient housing units for the victims of Marawi siege in 2017.
During the briefing in Pampanga Tuesday, HUDCC chairman Eduardo del Rosario was absent but his staff gave update about the plan of the agency for the affected residents, afterwhich Duterte answered “This is one — your office is one of those performing na maganda ‘yung housing ninyo. Pati ‘yung sa mga sundalo.”
Duterte continued “But the thing I admired most was the speed that you built the houses in Marawi. Sabi nila Marawi is not yet ready to… The epicenter was really the downtown. I don’t think that I should be spending for their buildings. Hindi ako maggagasto ng ano.”
But, Duterte manifested, the government is not keen on spending so much for the rehabilitation of Marawi “Marami man ‘yang pera ‘yang mga tao diyan. Every Maranao, there is a businessman. Kasali na ‘yang shabu. May pera sila. The debate there is whether I would be also building the same kind that they lost. I don’t think I am ready for that,” he added.
Appreciating what is being done in Marawi informal settlers, Duterte said “Pero ‘yung mga in sa — ‘yung mga informal settlers, the squatters so to speak, ‘yung ginawa ni del Rosario was really good. It’s sturdy, it can stand another whatever. Tapos sabagay man-made naman ang calamity doon. It was bound to happen because of what they were doing there.”-ezc/newsline.ph
