DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 June) — It’s back to zero for Marawi’s Ground Zero. There will be no groundbreaking rites on the first week of July as earlier announced by Housing Secretary and Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) chair Eduardo del Rosario because negotiations with the Chinese-led Bagong Marawi Consortium (BMC) on the development plan for Ground Zero — the “Most Affected Area” (MAA) — failed, and a new proponent, a Chinese government-owned firm engaged in hydropower, is still undergoing an “eligibility check”.

THE top three suppliers of the billion-peso food, hygiene, and various other kits for the displaced residents of the Islamic City of Marawi supposedly offered “the lowest and most responsive bids” but a price check with the Trade department and retail grocery chains show otherwise.

NEARLY EVERY month in the last half of 2017, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office in Region XII (Central Mindanao) went on a shopping binge and ended up splurging over a billion pesos.

CONTRACTORS tied to political clans have been awarded a combined total of P306 million in contracts to build transitional shelter units and roads for residents of Marawi City and nearby villages of Lanao del Sur, where homes and villages last year were destroyed in the five-month battle between soldiers and Islamic State-linked militants.