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I joined my colleagues to Marawi City on Tuesday to cover the “Kambisita,” wherein displaced Meranaws were allowed to visit their homes in the most affected areas and retrieve whatever is left of their belongings in the rubble. I was told that on that day, those in “Sector 9,” referring to the area in the padian (market), were the ones to visit. Authorities just can’t let every Marawi resident visit at the same time; there’d be chaos with the sheer number of people. This being the padian, the crowd were a mix of ordinary residents and businessmen who once had shops in the area. Can’t imagine how I would have felt if I were in their shoes, had the five-month siege happened to my place, the city closest to Marawi. I frequented Marawi starting in the late ’80s as a young promdi journalist fresh from college.