No more deadlines for AFP vs Maute

MANILA, Philippines - After failing to meet its deadline for liberating Marawi City, the military will no longer set timetables for the operations against the Islamic State (IS)-linked Maute terrorists.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla admitted that clearing the city of Maute militants would take more time because security forces are avoiding civilian casualties. 

“We will not set deadlines. We will ensure that we are able to clear it of any armed element that still exists and it may take some time,” Padilla said in a press briefing at Malacañang yesterday.

“The operations we are doing, as I mentioned earlier, are not as easy as the ones we are doing in jungles. So it will entail a bit of time before we clear every house of any armed element. So we beg for some patience but we are getting there,” he added. 

The government has repeatedly failed to meet its self-imposed targets on the Marawi crisis, which started after terrorists raided the city last May 23. 

Security forces originally sought to finish the operations against the Maute militants last June 2, but stiff resistance and the presence of trapped civilians prevented them.

On June 4, President Duterte said the crisis may be finished in “about three days” but the fighting persisted.

Last week, the military said it would seek to liberate the strife-torn city on June 12, the 119th anniversary of Philippine independence, but the goal was not met. 

“The military activities that are conducted in open terrains like jungles are a different story when it is compared to urban terrain. In an urban terrain where civilians are still currently trapped and may possibly be used as human shields or may be hit by crossfire, troops have to be very careful,” Padilla said. 

“Our rules of engagement are very different in urban terrain. We have to be very careful, we have to very judicious, we have to be very deliberate so as to avoid hitting innocent lives. And this is where the slow process of liberating Marawi is currently happening,” he added. 

The military also issued contradicting statistics about its operations in Marawi City.

Security officials claimed last May 31 that the Maute group was controlling three of the 96 barangays or about ten percent of Marawi.

But on Tuesday, the military said the militants are holding on to four barangays, including the commercial district Bongolo, or about 20 percent of the city. 

Padilla attributed the contradicting data to the “fog of war” and the volatile situation on the ground. 

“The initial reports came from our ground commanders. Now, you know, there’s this thing called fog of war when everything is all breaking loose and then everything is very fluid, the reporting system may not be very accurate, as exact as we would want,” the military spokesman said. 

“So now that we have lulls in the fighting, and we can more or less cross check our data, there is a decision now to be more specific that the use of barangays would be better,” he added.

Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesman for the Army’s 1st Infantry Division fighting the Maute terrorists, said there are still about 150 to 200 militants involved in the battle with government troops.

The battle for Marawi has raged for three weeks after gunmen waving black flags of the IS group rampaged through the city on May 23.

Initial assertions from authorities said the conflict would be over in days but it turned out to be a protracted battle. – With Jaime Laude, Janie Cameron, Roel Pareño, Gerry LeeGorit, Edu Punay