VOLUME 18 (Supplement)

Darkest nights of the Marawi siege

The peaceful afternoon of May 23, 2017, in Marawi City, turned the battleground as the government forces clashed with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levent (ISIL)-affiliated militants of Abu Sayyaf Salafi Jihadist and the Maute group. The 2016-2020 Marawi City night-time light imageries captured by the Visual Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite undergo pixel count and linear interpolation through Python Spyder programming, and were rastered and clipped using the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS). It was revealed that the Marawi City was not light polluted (red pixels: ~80 x 10-9 W/cm2*sr) in 2016 and shows a significant decrease on the radiance value in 2017 siege. Around 72% of the night-time light (NTL) of the pre-siege (May 2017) has depleted on post-siege (October 2017), indicating the great gravity of the mass destruction within the main battle areas. The battle caused detrimental scars in Marawi City which was reflected in the imageries, pixel counts and radiance value. The relief operations and rehabilitation in Marawi warrant the health care, welfare, security, economy, peace and empowerment to its residents organized by the Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) in cooperations with several government agencies and international organizations and governments. The radiance value in 2020 shows the reestablishment of the condition in 2016, even so, other villages show the revitalization of urbanization. This coincides with the report made in April 2021 by the TFBM that the rehabilitation is nearing its completion by the end of December 2021 and June 2022 report which summarizes 72% of the infrastructures are complete.