The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) has promised to assist the nine-member Marawi Compensation Board (MCB) in carrying out its mandate of granting monetary compensation to victims of the 2017 Marawi siege.
Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman made the pledge during a meeting with MCB chairperson Maisarah Dandamun-Latiph at the DBM office in Manila on Friday.
The meeting's agenda includes a discussion of the budget, funding sources, and the implementing rules and regulations of Republic Act (RA) 11696, also known as the Marawi Siege Victims Compensation Act, according to a statement posted on the DBM's official Facebook page.
The DBM has also vowed to fully support Marawi City's rehabilitation and recovery, she added.
The meeting took place only a week after Dandamun-Latiph was sworn in as MBC chair.
RA 11696 requires the MCB, which consists of a chairperson and eight members, to pay qualified claimants "as soon as possible."
The board is tasked under the law with facilitating the tax-free payment of reparations to eligible claimants who lost residential, cultural, and commercial properties during the Marawi siege.
Private property owners are also compensated under RA 11696 based on the sum of the current market value of the land and the replacement cost of structures and improvements.
The law requires that compensation claims be filed with the MCB within one year of its formation and in accordance with the implementing rules and regulations.
According to RA 11696, failure to file an application within the one-year period constitutes a waiver of the right to file the same.
The MCB shall be allocated an operating budget of not more than PHP50 billion from the Contingent Fund's current year appropriations.
