Military still fighting strong Maute force – DND chief

MANILA, Philippines - Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana disclosed yesterday that about 200 to 250 Maute and Islamic State (IS) rebels continue to fight government troops in Marawi City.

With this development, Lorenzana, despite declaring in the initial stages of the fighting that the conflict would be over in five days, is no longer giving a deadline for when the conflict would be resolved. 

However, he assured the people that everything is being done to end the fighting and to stabilize the situation in Marawi as soon as possible after the Maute group attacked the city last May 23.

“We talked about an estimated 100 to 200 in the initial stage of the conflict, then we revised that to a higher number because when we were able to kill more than 100 of them, the Maute is still strong,” the defense chief said in a telecast press briefing during his visit to the troops in Marawi City yesterday.

He said the focus of the current military offensive is Barangay Banggolo that has been surrounded by government forces.

Banggolo is one of three areas where government security forces are facing difficulty clearing, with civilians still trapped inside their houses and work places.

“Maybe they still have sufficient ammunition, the reason why they are still putting up a good fight,” Lorenzana said in a televised media briefing from Marawi.

The defense chief also said he is not discounting the possibility that on top of the slain foreign IS fighters, there are still other foreign terrorists who are fighting alongside the Maute group.

The military said the foreign terrorists killed so far include two Saudi Arabians, two Indonesians, two Malaysians, a Yemeni, an Indian and a Chechen.

“There are the others there who were killed but we don’t know yet their nationalities. And there might be some who are fighting alongside with the Mautes,” Lorenzana said.

He added that the foreign terrorists could have converged in Marawi City, being an Islamic city in Mindanao, passing themselves off as Muslim religious teachers.

Jailed forever’

President Duterte ordered last night the arrest of all narco politicians whom he threatened to lock up beyond the 60-day limit of the current martial law being implemented in Mindanao.

In a speech before wounded soldiers at Camp Evangelista in Cagayan de Oro, Duterte said he wants to detain these narco polticians “forever.”

The President earlier revealed that drug money was being used by the Maute group in pushing forward their goals to make Mindanao part of an Islamic State caliphate.

He described them as “traitors in government,” citing as example now detained police colonel Maria Cristina Nobleza, who allowed herself to be used by the Abu Sayyaf. – With Christina Mendez