Ex-mayor tagged as Maute financier

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – In its formative years, the Maute group received financial support from then Marawi City mayor Fajad Salic, now under arrest for rebellion in connection with the militants’ siege of the country’s only Islamic city.

This was according to reliable sources, who also raised the possibility that Salic’s relation by affinity to the Maute clan may have convinced authorities to include him in the list of individuals targeted for arrest for possible involvement in the Marawi siege.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana released the list recently.

Salic – along with three others – was arrested Wednesday night in the town of Villanueva in Misamis Oriental while en route in a Ford Ranger to Cagayan de Oro City from Butuan City.

Reports said one of Salic’s wives is a niece of Ominta “Farhana” Romato, the first wife of Cayamora Maute, patriarch of the Maute clan. Salic had also been married to actress Alma Moreno.

Armed Forces Eastern Mindanao Command deputy commander Brig. Gen. Gilberto Gapay said Salic is also being investigated for possible direct participation in the siege of Marawi City that started last May 23. Government troops are still ferreting out Maute militants who have been using their Christian hostages as human shields.

“It is the object of the ongoing investigation on Salic,” said Gapay, spokesman of the Eastmincom for martial law.

Gapay said that even before the Marawi crisis, Salic was already known as an active supporter of the Maute group, which claimed to have links to the extremist Middle East-based Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or ISIS.

Salic was three-term mayor from 2007 to 2016.

“He was arrested because of an arrest order issued against him by the Department of National Defense, through Arrest Order No. 2, where his name is included for involvement in the Marawi rebellion,” Supt. Lemuel Gonda, spokesman for the Police Regional Office 10, said.

Salic denied the accusation shortly after his arrest. “I am not involved in that (Marawi siege). I’ve been in Manila even before the trouble in Marawi started,” Salic told reporters in Cagayan de Oro City. He also denied being a narco-politician.

He said that when reports linking him to drugs came out, “I personally went to the DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) regional office to clear my name. In fact, I signed a waiver that I am willing to be investigated. Until now, I cannot find any reason why I have been implicated in illegal drugs,” Salic said in the local dialect.

Arresting officers did not find anything illegal in his possession or in his vehicle.

Salic is currently detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group office at Camp Evangelista, Patag, Cagayan de Oro.

Martial law spokesman Brig. Gen. Resituto Padilla said they are still looking for a suitable detention facility for Salic.

“That is still being determined but for now I don’t know yet. Right now he is still detained in Cagayan de Oro City,” Padilla told reporters at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City when asked if Salic would be transferred to Manila.

After more than two weeks of fighting, government troops in Marawi City have succeeded in isolating the Maute terrorists in an area where escape is almost impossible, sources in the military said.

IS recruiter nabbed

In Cotabato City, a recruiter of two southern Jihadist groups identified with the Islamic State (IS) was arrested yesterday.

Nasser Dilangalen, 57, a construction foreman in the City Engineering Office, was detained at a local police facility after he was arrested by combined personnel of the Regional Police Office-12, the military-led Joint Task Force Kutawato, the Cotabato City police office and the Army’s 5th Special Forces Battalion.

Sources said Dilangalen, a scion of a big Moro clan in the first district of Maguindanao, is a key recruiter of both the now combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf terror groups and the Ansa’r Al-Khilafa Philippines (AKP).

The Maute and the Abu Sayyaf groups are now together in the Dawlah Islamiya Philippines (DIP), founded by siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute.

The allied AKP and DIP are known Southern Mindanao cells of IS.

Dilangalen is related by blood to one of seven militants killed by members of the Philippine Marine Corps that raided AKP’s lair in Barangay Butril, Palimbang town in Sultan Kudarat in late 2015.

The mother of the slain jihadist is a career service staff of a government entity in Region 12.

Army intelligence sources told The STAR that Dilangalen had recruited high school and college students into the fold of AKP and DIP, which are both using the black IS flag as revolutionary banners.

Next week target

In Zamboanga City, Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom) chief Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr. said they hope to clear Marawi City of terrorists by early next week.

Galvez said ground forces have penetrated the Marinaut area – one of the strongest points occupied by the militants – and smashed their logistics capability.

He estimated that 25 to 30 percent of the city has yet to be cleared of militants.         

Ground troops, he added, had to tackle three to four strong points held by terrorists.

He lamented, however, that soldiers couldn’t just blast their way to terrorist positions as the latter were holding civilian hostages, including a Catholic priest.

“But considering we have paralyzed their logistic capability we’re looking at the possibility the end would be near,” Galvez said.

He also said Abu Sayyaf extremist leader Isnilon Hapilon is reportedly still inside Marawi City together with Maute militants and that he still poses a threat to troopers or to anyone entering the city. Meanwhile, at least 26 civilians have been rescued from the battle zone.

Information received by The STAR indicated that the terrorists are contained within the city’s lower area near Lanao Lake and Agus River.

“Our forces are now on the higher ground while most of the terrorists have withdrawn to their pre-designated withdrawal area which is near the coastal area of the city,” a source in the field said.

Another source said he expects fighting to intensify in the coming days if trapped militants would opt to fight it out instead of surrendering. – With  Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, John Unson