Gov’t forces in full control of besieged city; surgical airstrikes continue

The plan of the Islamic-State-linked Maute Group to burn down the besieged city during the month of Ramadan was thwarted when government forces raided one of the hideouts of the local terrorist group, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) revealed yesterday.

AFP Chief of Staff General Eduardo Año said the Maute plan was uncovered following a recent raid on one of the terror group’s hideouts in Marawi City. Other significant information were also uncovered during the raid, but Año declined to disclose it.

“The terrorist Maute-ISIS Group was surprised by raiding security forces in that safe house in Barangay Basak Malutlut, Marawi, occupied by Isnilon Hapilon – the touted “Amir” of ISIS in the Philippines,” Año said.

AFP Public Affairs Office chief Marine Colonel Edgard Arevalo said the grand plan to burn down the entire city of Marawi in the ensuing two weeks was thwarted as a result of the raid.

“Hence, what others termed to be a ‘botched raid’ turned out to be an ‘abortive raid’ that prevented what could have been carnage of an Islamic City in two weeks yet,” Arevalo said.

“And this explains why at the time of the raid, the terrorist group was able to pull out almost instantaneously and simultaneously counter actions in various locations in the city to distract the focus of the raid,” Arevalo added.

So far, Arevalo said the terrorist Maute-ISIS Group has suffered 61 – 42 physically accounted for and 19 based on eyewitness accounts – dead and undetermined number of wounded in the ongoing government offensive Marawi.

On Monday, government forces traded heavy gunfire with the Maute militants, as fears grew for up to 2,000 people unable to escape a week of fighting.

“They are texting us and calling us for help,” Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the provincial crisis management committee, said of the 2,000 people his office had recorded being unable to leave areas held by the militants.

“They can’t leave because they are afraid of running into checkpoints put up by the gunmen.”

Myrna Bandung, a Catholic woman, told reporters at a checkpoint on Monday how she was spared by the militants.

“They did not kill me because I was able to recite a Muslim prayer. The others were not so lucky,” said a visibly shocked Bandung, who was with eight others who accompanied one of the bodies out of the city.

DARING ESCAPE

Meanwhile, CNN Philippines television reported that 10 people taken hostage while fleeing Marawi had escaped their Maute captors during the Monday air strike and are now in safe hands. The 11th man who tried to escape drowned while crossing a river.

The group said they decided to plan the daring escape after another hostage was beheaded Sunday.

The escapees said that they had no food to eat while being held captive in a building by mestizo-looking men. They also learned that a priest and some women were also held hostage at the same building.

CLEARED BY JUNE 1?

But the military declared Monday that it is already in full control of Marawi, expressing hope that it can clear the besieged city of Maute terrorists by June 1.

In a text message sent to reporters, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said as far as they are concerned the area should be cleared of militants by Thursday, June 1.

In a press briefing in Malacañang, AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said that when he says they are in full control it means that they can control who comes in and who comes out, and moves around and who doesn’t in the city.

 “We have complete control of the city, contrary to what is coming out in social media and other information, perhaps some fake news,” Padilla said.

“We are trying to isolate all these pockets of resistance that have remained,” he added.

“Although we do not have a timeline, we’re seeking to end this as soon as possible. Our ground commanders have assured that the end is almost there so we hope to get clear results,” Padilla said in a Palace press conference.

“It is not true that half of the city is controlled by the rebels. Totally, untrue. The armed forces and the police and all armed – our forces are in complete control of the city, except for certain areas of the city where they continue to hold. These are the subject of clearing operations that are continuously being conducted,” he said.

Padilla assured that martial law in Mindanao will be lifted as soon as law and order have been restored in the region, especially in Marawi City.

Director General Ronald dela Rosa, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said he will recommend the lifting of the martial law in Mindanao as soon as the security situation in Marawi City normalizes.

But right now, Dela Rosa said it is too early to predict the outcome of the ongoing police and military operations against the Maute Group since a lot of its fighters are still holed up in Marawi City.

RECONSTRUCTION PLAN

Meanwhile, Malacañang assured that the government will find ways to reconstruct the lives of the people affected by the attacks in Marawi City as the total number of civilians rescued by the military climbed to 390 as of Sunday evening.

Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Marie Banaag said  both the provincial and national government will look into how to deliver the assistance to the residents affected by the ongoing armed conflict in Marawi City. According to Banaag, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) will work with the local government units (LGUs) at the municipal level first. But if that is not enough, she said the calamity fund of the LGU will be utilized.

“Pero kung hindi kakayanin [ng calamity fund] (But if the calamity fund will not be enough), the provincial government and the national government will look into it kung papaano (on how we can extend the assistance),” she said during the first episode of the Mindanao Hour Monday morning.

RESCUE ‘CHILD WARRIORS’

As this developed, Senator Nancy Binay called on the AFP, members of the media, and the local government of Marawi City to rescue the children allegedly being used by the Maute Group as “child warriors.”

Binay said the reported participation of children in the ongoing conflict in Marawi is seriously alarming and if true, is “inhumane and morally unacceptable.”

“I’m asking the AFP, local officials, residents, and the media to confirm the presence of child warriors in Marawi,” Binay said in a statement.

“It is inhumane and morally unacceptable to use children in armed combat roles, and expose them to extreme violence,” the senator said.

Based on the account of a policeman involved in the clearing operations in Marawi City, the Maute Group is using children aged 10 to 16 years old to carry out their ambushes and were reportedly carrying baby armalites.

If indeed the reports are true, Binay said she is appealing to the military to do everything to spare the children.

“They are not combatants nor should they be treated as rebels. Sila rin po ay mga biktima ng karahasan at maling ideolohiya (They, too, are victims of violence and wrong ideology). It is our moral duty to save them from the horrors of war,” Binay added.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Francis Wakefield and Genalyn Kabiling

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