Marawi conflict end seen in a month

From Malaya Business Insight (Sep 26): Marawi conflict end seen in a month

MORE soldiers will be deployed to Marawi City to augment some 5,000 troops battling the Maute terror group, Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, chief of the AFP Western Mindanao Command, announced yesterday as he said the armed conflict which broke out on May 23 would not last another month.

“We have more forces coming in. We have identified some gaps. We are making sure that those gaps, especially in the (Lanao) lake will be patched up,” Galvez said in a press briefing in Marawi City.

Galvez would not say how many more soldiers will be sent to the main battle area, now down to about 10 hectares with some 300 structures.

The 5,000 figure does not include policemen supporting the operations to rid Marawi City of Maute remnants, now numbering 60 to 80, and holding 45 to 50 hostages.

Since the conflict started, 695 Maute men have died, together with 151 soldiers and policemen and 47 civilians.

Galvez said soldiers are well-distributed in the city, in keeping with the directive of higher headquarters to ensure the Maute would not be able to send reinforcements or slip out of the battle zone.

He also said the Maute Group’s defenses have started to slacken “but we cannot relax and lower our guard.” He noted that the remnants of the group are still “capable of doing something.”

Galvez said the armed conflict would not take another month. On Tuesday last week, President Duterte said the conflict might end this month as troops are already on mopping-up operations.

“It would no longer take a month. It will take days only or weeks... More or less, two weeks or three most probably, that is our timeline... Our operational push is good, considering that all the strategic areas have been recovered already,” said Galvez.

Late last month, Galvez said he expected normalcy to return to the city in two to three weeks, noting that the Maute Group was getting smaller each day.

The operations have led to the recovery of 698 firearms and rescue of 1,730 hostages.

Four newly-rescued hostages were presented by Galvez yesterday to the media in Marawi City. They were Lordvin Acopio, Hadji Abdullah Nicon Rakin Baunto, Kiram Datu Dakula Ampatua, and Abdulnasser Ergas Mangondaya.

Acopio was rescued last September 16, along with Fr. Chito Soganub, from a mosque which soldiers retook from the Maute.

Soganub was presented by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana and AFP chief Gen. Eduardo Año to the media last Monday in Camp Aguinaldo.

Baunto, Ampatua and Mangondaya were rescued by government forces last week, said Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the military’s Joint Task Force Ranao.

The military declined to give further details about the rescue of Baunto, Ampatua and Mangondaya.

“We cannot give you the answer. There are still more or less 46 hostages there. If we will reveal how we rescued them, it might compromise the ongoing rescue operations for the others,” said Galvez.

http://www.malaya.com.ph/business-news/news/marawi-conflict-end-seen-month