Marawi residents wait to go home

Vegetable patches

To augment their food supply, some of the evacuees plant vegetable patches in the evacuation centers.

Once in a while, Sultan said, they get fresh fish. "It's really miserable living in an evacuation center. Even drinking water is scarce sometimes," she said.

Her husband cannot find a job. Duterte imposed martial rule in the entire Mindanao region in the wake of the siege, making it difficult for male residents to move around for security reasons.

Unlike the other displaced residents, the Sultans do not own a house. They were just renting an apartment, they said, making them less likely to return to their village after the rehabilitation is completed.

Felix Castro, the assistant secretary of Urban Development Coordinating Council and the manager of the Task Force Bangon Marawi Field Office, said there are still 39,000 families who have not returned to their homes.

Some of them are staying with relatives in Marawi and nearby provinces. Some 1,000 families are living in 41 evacuation centers, he said.

Authorities hope the rehabilitation work inside the former battleground will be completed by 2021.

Castro said the government is still trying to find a contractor to clear the debris in the city's central business district, which the military calls the "most affected area".

The military said there are still an estimated 50 unexploded ordnance and improvised explosive devices in that part of the city that need to be cleared.

"The biggest challenge is taking care of the IDPs (internally displaced people) while they are still waiting for the chance to rebuild their houses considering the time that will take," Castro said.

He said the government is looking at projects for the evacuees to help them earn an income.

Sultan welcome the idea but she stressed the need for the government to provide capital.

"We cannot rely on doleouts. We also need cash to pay for our other needs which are not provided to us, like diapers for our children," Sultan said.

Xinhua