Marawi City: A month-old siege

Tomorrow, the siege of Marawi City by the Maute brothers and their terrorist friends will turn one month. I’m sure that there are many impatient Filipinos out there who cannot see through the gallantry of our Filipino soldiers and instead question why they cannot finish the last 20 percent of Marawi City under the control of the Maute terrorists. Most of these naysayers are yellow cowards who genuflect in the presence of theAquino family as if they are gods in this country.

Mind you, this is only the second time that the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) tasted urban warfare. The first time was the siege of Zamboanga City by some 200 men from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) on Sept. 9, 2013 that took two weeks to neutralize.

A year and a half ago, we rode our bikes to Zamboanga City and I personally toured the area, which was then controlled by the MNLF, and that place was totally devastated. Yet no airstrikes rained down on Zamboanga City to dislodge the MNLF. I’m pretty sure that when the Maute terror group is neutralized, we would see a very destroyed Marawi City.

Indeed the AFP has long fought its battles against all insurgents and terrorists hiding in the jungles, where they can effectively use 105 howitzer cannons and airstrikes with impunity. But fighting an urban war is a totally different scenario. Unfortunately, the AFP is woefully lacking in counterinsurgency technology and equipment like Kevlar helmets and armored vests, which we hope someday would be standard issue to the Filipino soldiers. Yet despite these negatives, our soldiers have killed some 257 terrorists (some of them foreigners like Malaysians and Indonesians) but at the cost of 62 of our own soldiers whose bravery is without question.

Remember during the presidency of Joseph “Erap” Estrada when the AFP overran Camp Abubakkar? They learned that concrete cement sections for irrigation projects were turned into machinegun bunkers. That’s because the MNLF had all the time to build their defensive perimeters. This is what the AFP has also found out in areas they captured in Marawi City and learned that this battle was very well planned, funded, and organized by the Maute terror group because they had all the time to stockpile weapons and ammunition and food supplies. They even built bombproof basements in homes and tunnels as their escape routes.

No doubt the preparation for the defense of Marawi City were lessons that the ISIS gave to the Maute terrorists when they defended Mosul in Iraq, and Raqqa and Aleppo in Syria. This was why it has also taken coalition forces months to rid these cities of the ISIS terrorists. For sure, the AFP has learned a lot from the Marawi crisis, including how to handle terrorists who use civilians as human shields.

Meanwhile, we must get into the bottom of who are funding the Maute terror group which uses sophisticated weapons like a .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifle, M-16 and M4 rifles with telescopic sights. They have also bobby-trapped with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) many homes that get overrun by our soldiers. While it’s already a month since this battle for Marawi began, I’m glad that this time around, the AFP does not set a timetable as to when they would finally get the Maute terrorists out of the city.

Just the other day, 11 kilograms of shabu worth between P250 to P400 million were found by our soldiers in a house that they overran. This is proof to what President Duterte said that illegal drug money was used to fund the Maute terror group’s activities. Two weeks ago, our soldiers also found P59 million in cold cash, something that most drug lords do because they cannot trust the banks.

At this point, we do not have any idea of how much longer the AFP can retake all of Marawi City. But we must focus on our main objective and targets, not just to remove or kill all the Maute terrorists still fighting to the death in Marawi but also to prevent them from establishing a caliphate in Mindanao.

Meanwhile, we must continue supporting the AFP and our soldiers with funds, food, and medicines for they are fighting a war so we can have our peace.

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@moscom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.