President Duterte told residents of Marawi City that rehabilitating the battle-torn city is not an easy task, especially with issues beyond terrorism that are yet to be resolved.
Duterte made the statement after the Moro Consensus Group said there was no reason to celebrate the anniversary of the liberation of Marawi, especially since residents are still barred from going home and they have yet to receive compensation for their losses.
In his weekly public address, President Duterte said that the government is already working on rebuilding Marawi.
"You know, Marawi is not that easy. We started it and we are at it already because yung clearing of explosives ang matagal (the clearing of explosives is what delays the process)," he said.
'It might take--it's not easy to do that--it might take some time before we can really reach the ideal place that we'd call home," he added.
According to Duterte, aside from the clearing operations, which the group claimed were already completed, another issue is land titles.
"You have to contend with titles. Yung titles niyo diyan doble-doble (You have so many and duplicate titles). So there's no title that is really very clean," he said.
"There the individual titles na nag-o-overlap (that overlap) and so many things left to solve locally and the problem is about Marawi and community itself. Hindi sa gobyerno (Not with the government)," he added.
The President, however, assured that the government has the money to rebuild Marawi and they will continue spending the funds allocated for it.
"The money is there, do not worry. We will continue to spend until such time that Marawi is rebuilt to its former glory," he said.
Liberation
Meanwhile, President Duterte addressed the sentiment of the group about Marawi being not really liberated.
"Government liberated Marawi not from the people of Marawi. We do not do that and we never did it. We liberated Marawi against the terrorists--Maute pati yung (and the) ISIS," he said.
"You're using the word 'liberation'. We never said that it is occupied by anybody, except by the government and peace-loving Filipinos," he added.
According to Duterte, the government did not ask for the war in 2017.
"Of course, it is not freed from the activities of the terrorists. But if you're talking about liberation, tapos na 'yan (that's already done)---at the expense of blood of both sides," he said.
"We're doing our best. We did not ask for this fight. We had to destroy because it was the only way to put down the enemy. They were also taking cover in buildings kaya ganoon ang nangyari (that's why that happened)," he added.
Marawi City was the battleground of the five-month war between pro-ISIS terrorists and the government. The country will commemorate the third year of its liberation from the terrorists on October 23.