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Introduction to the Marawi Seige
Introduction to the Marawi Seige
The midday call to prayer, once a comforting melody drifting through Marawi's bustling streets, now hung heavy in the air, an unsettling silence following its last note. On May 23rd, 2017, the ground rumbled not with the familiar thrum of life, but with the terrifying tremor of gunfire. Bullets ripped through the fabric of normalcy, shattering windows and sending dreams scattering. Panic, raw and primal, flooded the streets. Mothers clutched children tighter, their frantic whispers dissolving into choked sobs. The once lively marketplace, a symphony of haggling and laughter, became a chaotic stampede for escape.
What began as a raid by ISIS-linked Maute Group on a suspected hideout quickly spiraled into a brutal siege. The city, known for its rich cultural tapestry and warm hospitality, became a battleground. The relentless barrage of gunfire shattered windows, sending shrapnel tearing through lives and dreams. As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting long shadows of despair, the true weight of the situation settled in. Marawi, once a haven, was now a city under siege, its future shrouded in the smoke of war.
Belongings were abandoned in the desperate rush. Heirloom jewelry, painstakingly crafted over generations, lay forgotten beside half-eaten meals. Homes, filled with the love and laughter of families, were left standing empty, silent witnesses to the sudden exodus. Huddled masses, faces etched with terror, streamed towards the city's edge, seeking refuge anywhere it could be found. Overcrowded evacuation centers offered a semblance of safety, but not solace. The air thrummed with the collective anxieties of displaced families. Children, wide-eyed and bewildered, clung to their mothers, haunted by the cacophony of violence they barely understood. What had been a bustling city, vibrant with life, was reduced to a sea of lost faces, each one a story of shattered dreams and a future as uncertain as the smoke billowing from the burning heart of Marawi.
How It Started
How It Started
By the third week of the siege, the City of Marawi was reduced to ruble and smoldering ashes. Thousands of civilians remain trapped between the terrorists' sniper rifles, and the Howitzers and the constant aerial bombings. It was at this time the idea of Bangon MaraWe was formed at the smoking area of one of the call centers in Manila. It was suggested that a benefit concert to raise funds and awareness for the relief and rehabilitation of Marawi can be organized in the capital.
You can read how the planning progressed in the Bangon MaraWe blog. Partts of it, at least.
The conflict in the south drove people away from their homes. While most of the residents relocated to evacuation sites the government put up, a few hundred made it all the way to Manila. Volunteers from Kaya Natin and Angat Buhay reached out to the evacuees in Quiapo and organised a drive to help them.
The Bangon MaraWe concert was originally conceptualized as a small pocket event, to be held in one of the bars in Metro Manila. However, as the magnitude of the crisis in Marawi grew, the need for more significant help became the reality. On July 4, 2017, the target date was initially set to August 12, 2017. Everybody was optimistic that all the pieces of the jigsaw would be obtained and set in place by that time.
It was eventually held on September 30, 2017 at the Manhattan Row on General Malvar Avenue, Araneta Center Cubao, Quezon City.
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