03/11/2019
IMMINENT DANGER LOOMING IN MARAWI
As I watched events unfolding in the Most Affected Area in Marawi through the network news, I cannot help but shiver in disbelief that those people in charge for the initial rehabilitation of the area are now sending messages that it is safe for the local population to return back to the area.
I was appalled in hearing this being announced that it is now safe for the owners of the land to start construction of their structures. Being the one who initiated and put the plan into effect of how to do the Battle Area clearing operations of UXO in the area I cannot help but wonder if they have gone through the third, fourth and final phase in declaring the area cleared of UXO.
Doing a Battle Area Clearing Operation is not a small feat, specially in a highly build up area with an approximate area of 250 hectares. After INDPSI conducted the initial Assessment of how to deal with this enormous task, our group of Technical experts both Foreign and Local, came up with a 5 phase plan on how to recover and neutralize the said UXO's in the said area. We based these plans on Internationally Accepted Standards in dealing with these UXO's .
When INDPSI started its BAC ops in MAA on March 18, 2019, we already encountered some frictions from several parties, which was later resolved after a few meetings and explanations on how to PROPERLY do this. SAFETY PROTOCOLS were put in place and was followed diligently during the first 2 and a half months. But as I have mentioned it was doing good for 2 and half months, but when there is pressure coming from above to finish the demolition of structures in the specified time frame of 6 months , all SAFETY PROTOCOLS where thrown out of the window and the Contractors start to go into areas that we have not yet rendered safe.
To make a long story short, INDPSI was terminated by the GenCon because of frictions with their decisions that they are making in the area. This was after when INDPSI has already made SIGNIFICANT progress in recovering some of the aerial bombs in different sectors . INDPSI left the area with about 60% of the structures have already been cleared of UXO's.
After that I don't have a general idea of how they proceeded in doing the Battle Area Operations. During the meetings that INDPSI had with the government authorities during the 1st week of operations, the Assessment given by INDPSI to them is that it will take a minimum of 2 years just to do the Battle Area Clearing operation and it will be next to impossible to clear all UXO's in the area in a matter of 6 months. INDPSI even suggested to have several areas condemned because of the extreme difficulty of recovering and neutralizing some UXO's in the area.
So when it was announced during the 2nd anniversary of the Liberation of Marawi .... I cannot help but cringed on this announcement.
A lot of soldiers and civilians have already lost their lives on this traumatic event, please don't let some more lives be lost just because of this kind of POLITICAL decisions.
When you let those displaced people return back to the area without doing the proper BAC operation ... YOU WILL BE PUTTING HUNDREDS IF NOT THOUSANDS OF LIVES AT RISK,
I AM APPEALING TO THE DECISION MAKERS TO DROP WHATEVER IS YOUR MOTIVATION BEHIND THIS DECISIONS AND DO THE RIGHT AND PROPER THING
LET US GIVE BACK MAA TO THE IDP''s PROPERLY AND SAFELY or IT WILL BE IN YOUR HANDS WHEN IT WILL FUEL ANOTHER SITUATION LIKE THIS
