President Rodrigo Duterte’s pivot to China in October 2017 has led to a $328 million plan to rebuild Marawi City, recently liberated from the control of ISIS-affiliated extremists. But the reconstruction plan could fuel the fans of Islamic radicalism again.
MANILA – Ironic. That is how Sultan Abdul Hamidullah Atar described the planned rehabilitation of Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province on the Philippine island of Mindanao, a year after the Maute Group, also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, launched an attack on the city on May 23, 2017. The five-month battle that followed resulted in the death of more than 1,000 people and displaced 360,000 more.
MANILA – Ironic. That is how Sultan Abdul Hamidullah Atar described the planned rehabilitation of Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province on the Philippine island of Mindanao, a year after the Maute Group, also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, launched an attack on the city on May 23, 2017. The five-month battle that followed resulted in the death of more than 1,000 people and displaced 360,000 more.