The Maute Group is still a top security threat, a top military commander said Friday, even as Army forces seized a camp of the Islamic State-inspired group in Lanao del Sur after a 10-hour battle that killed three terrorists and wounded three soldiers.
Col. Romeo Brawner, commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade, called on Maute stragglers to surrender.
“We are giving them a chance to live a peaceful and meaningful life. We are calling on the remaining Maute-IS fighters to surrender peacefully to the nearest military installations before the next combat operations,” Brawner said.
The commander also dismissed Maute efforts to disrupt the just-concluded referendum for the Bangsamoro Organic Law, which would expand the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
READ: Army swoops down on Maute; 3 injured
“Is it a threat to BOL? The BOL [plebiscite] just ended, and they didn’t meddle because if they come down [from their hideouts], the people would point them out,” Brawner said. “So it’s either we arrest them or we kill them.”
Asked if the Maute soldiers were just waiting for the BOL to “cool down” before causing trouble in the region again, Brawner said the current standing force of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front”•which has supported the plebiscite”•is big enough to deter the terrorists.
Two members of the Maute Group, aged 34 and 17, surrendered, while troops pursued their leader, Abu Dar, said Lt. Edgar Allan Villanueva, commander of the 49th Infantry Battalion.
Villanueva said the two fighters said their leaders left them after an encounter with government troops.
Addressing the stragglers directly, Brawner said, “Take this offer now before it’s too late.”
“We will weaken their will to fight, either through lethal or non-lethal means. We will take them out of their comfort zones until they have no other option but to die or return to the fold of the law,” he said.
READ: Five Maute remnants killed in Lanao
“We are a determined force. Together with our fellow Maranaos, we will serve justice to the people who destroyed Marawi City,” Brawner said.
The gun battle in Sultan Dumalondong was 50 kilometers away from Marawi City, the site of a five-month siege after Maute fighters overran the city.
In the overrun camp, soldiers found rockets, black flags with the ISIS sign and books and notebooks.
Abu Dar took control of the Maute Group after the Maute brothers died in the Marawi siege.