Another Marawi possible, warns Moro rebel leader
manila — The chief of the Philippines’ main rebel group warned on Tuesday that militants loyal to the Daesh group, flush with looted guns and cash, could seize another Filipino city after Marawi last year.
Murad Ebrahim has billed his Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which has made peace with the government, as a rival to Daesh for the hearts and minds of angry young Muslims in the impoverished south of the mainly Catholic nation.
Murad said the MILF was battling pro-Daesh groups for influence in schools as the militants worked to infiltrate madrasas (Islamic religious schools) and secular universities.
At the same time Daesh gunmen were making their way into the southern Philippines from Malaysia and Indonesia, he added, but gave no estimates.
A five-month siege flattened the city of Marawi on the southern island of Mindanao, the Philippines’ main Islamic centre, and claimed more than 1,100 lives.
Murad told reporters conditions on the ground were still ripe for another Marawi-style siege.
“This Daesh group continues to penetrate us because they are being displaced in the Middle East
2014 The year when Manila signed a peace deal with the 10,000-member MILF
and they want to have another place,” Murad said. “The chances of having another Marawi cannot be overruled.”
The Marawi attackers found and looted stockpiles of munitions, cash and jewellery from homes — some owned by MILF members — before the city was retaken by US-backed Filipino troops in October, he said. —