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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Rody: War over soon

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THE ongoing siege of Marawi City will be over “in a matter of days,” President Rodrigo Duterte declared, saying the government was winning the war against Maute group terrorists in the besieged city.

“The way it’s being evolving now, I think it will be a matter of days…Before the end of the month, it will be over. We are winning the war, do not worry,” the President said Thursday night.

Duterte, however, admitted that “there’s no telling when” the fight with extremists will end.

“This will not go out of the scene within the next 10 years. If you have a son in the Philippine National Police or the Philippine Military Academy, they’ll still be fighting this war. And this will be a bloody and brutal war,” he said in Filipino.

Once the situation in Marawi has stabilized, Duterte said he intends to look into how the Maute group and the Abu Sayyaf fighters got hold of a large supply of guns, ammunition and money.

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Duterte made these pronouncements even as the military said it has “continuously prevented the spillover or spread of the Marawi crisis” to other parts of Mindanao.

“To sustain the prevailing security situation, our efforts are now geared in enhancing the existing security measures…We are strengthening maritime security and enhancing our border-crossing stations,” Eastern Mindanao Command deputy commander and Mindanao martial law spokesperson Brig. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said.

Since the fighting started in May, Gapay said they have prevented terrorists from making Eastern Mindanao as their safe haven or transit point.

The military had “effectively shielded Eastern Mindanao” from further terrorist attacks and deterred any diversionary, retaliatory or sympathetic attacks by the local terrorist groups in the area, Gapay said.

CLOSED FIST. President Rodrigo Duterte does his signature gesture as he poses with the personnel of the Police Regional Office 11 during his visit at their headquarters in Davao. Presidential Photo

Also on Friday, former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lauded the administration’s ability to boost the morale of the soldiers and policemen in the battle for Marawi City.

Arroyo in particular praised President Duterte’s regular visits to the soldiers in the field and the pay and other increases in financial benefits given to members of the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police since July 2016.

Among the latest benefits increased was the soldiers’ combat pay which has been raised to P3,000.00 monthly under President Duterte’s Executive Order 3.

“The least a leader can do to increase the morale of the defenders of our democracy and peace is to make sure that their families do not go hungry,” Arroyo said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has vowed to eliminate every single terrorist who brought chaos and destruction to Marawi City.

According to AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, the military will not stand down from various pressures to stop its aerial bombings on terrorists’ positions while carefully avoiding targets where civilian hostages were being used as human shields.

Latest reports say that up to 300 hostages remained inside the warzone and the women were reportedly being used as sex slaves by the terrorists whose number could be up to more than 100 including some foreign personalities.

“We wish to reiterate that the government’s policy not to negotiate with terrorists remains. Hence, any demands made inside Marawi hold no basis,” Padilla said.

“Let us continue to remind the public that the gravity of the offense of all these terrorists and their supporters is immense and they must all be held accountable for all their actions,” he added.

As of Friday, Padilla said the number of killed terrorists was already at 303 with 382 recovered firearms.

“On our side, we’ve 82 killed in action. Our troops have already rescued 1,713 civilians from the warzone,” Padilla said.

Padilla said ground troops with close-air support have intensified their clearing operations on building still occupied by terrorists.

“Military offensive operations continue. Portions of at least four remaining barangays remain problematic,” he said.

According to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, they intend to finish off the remaining members of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups inside the battle zone before the 60-day martial law ends in Mindanao.

Padilla said the military is doing everything, using all its resources it can muster to finish the battle the soonest possible so rehabilitation will be started.

“An inter-agency meetings and consultations preparatory to the rehabilitation, reconstruction and rebuilding of Marawi when hostilities end have begun and ongoing,” he said.

He said that one of their objectives is to rescue safe and alive all the remaining hostages from the terrorists.

“We have continuous clearing of Marawi of the remaining armed terrorists that continue to pose pockets of resistance to the advancing troops. We have to rescue all the trapped residents inside the warzone,” Padilla said.

While on the offensive, ground troops have also conducting the recovery of civilian casualties. With Maricel V. Cruz

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