Help needed

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) claimed yesterday that it had retaken 90 percent of Marawi City from the Maute group. I know this was at a big cost noting the number of soldiers who lost their lives since the initial clash on May 23. A salute, therefore, to the fallen and those still flushing out an enemy whose barbarism is a level higher than those of other homegrown terrorist groups.

The Maute group is reportedly but one of the 10 or so small groups that was organized into alliance by Isnilon Hapilon, the man supposedly designated as head of the IS branch in Southeast Asia. While the Marawi siege was sparked by the attempt by the military to arrest Hapilon, sources say the groups that pledged allegiance to IS have actually been planning offensives to seize territories.

Brutality is an IS trademark and it is obvious that the Maute and other terror groups that temporarily occupied Marawi City tried to copy it. Civilians were executed, structures were burned and the swathe of destruction was big. Reminds me of a Human Rights Watch official who said that in Iraq where IS once held sway, the terrorist group “routinely destroys lives and families.”

But in a way the current battle for Marawi City can be viewed positively in that it exposed not only the brutality of the Maute group but also its strength or lack of it. Now the AFP knows what the groups that pledged allegiance to the IS are capable of. And their defeat in Marawi can be considered a big blow to their dream of establishing a “wilayat,” an Arabic word that means dominion, in Mindanao.

I don’t think these IS supporters can do what their idols in the Middle East did, which was to take over territories in Iraq and Syria. The armed force of the government is so overwhelming it cannot be defeated in territorial warfare. No way can militants hold an area for a long time. Just ask older and bigger rebel groups like the New People’s Army (NPA), the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF).

The MILF is able to hold on to some territories in Mindanao because it is engaged in peace talks with the government. Remember former president Joseph Estrada and the MILF camps that fell when his administration launched an all-out war against the Muslim rebel group in 2000? I think the group’s strongest was Camp Abubakar, an area of around 32 hectares in parts of four Maguindanao towns.

What is difficult to contain, however, are terrorist attacks like bombings of vulnerable and crowded targets not only in Mindanao but also in other parts of the country. With the eventual defeat of the Maute and other groups that lay siege on Marawi City, it would be a no-brainer to say that they would follow that option. That is why it is imperative for government to pursue these groups and their leaders and neutralize them.

In the meantime, the focus in the coming days would be the rebuilding of areas that were on the path of the rampage of the Maute and other terrorist groups. On that, the people of Marawi City need all the help that the government and other concerned citizen could provide.