Hundreds of Filipinos risk death to flee city
After being warned of a major attack to free Marawi from militants, Muslims and Christians make dash to freedom
MARAWI CITY, PHILIPPINES // More than 200 civilians yesterday fled the besieged Philippine city of Marawi in a daring escape from their extremist captors, concealing dozens of Christians and saving them from murder.
Braving a terrifying gauntlet of military air strikes and extremist gunmen, they ran to freedom after being trapped in their homes for about two weeks while militants fought for control of their city.
The civilians included one of Marawi city’s most respected politicians, who hid 71 Christians in his home and led 144 people through downtown streets held by self-styled ISIL fighters and strewn with rotting corpses.
Norodin Alonto Lucman, the former vice governor of a Muslim self-ruled area that includes the now embattled city, said he twice turned away gunmen – some of them neighbours and distant relatives – at his Marawi home asking for food and weapons.
But supplies eventually ran out and they fled through bombed-out downtown streets, dodging snipers. “The city is strewn with debris, dead chickens, rats, dogs, even the smell of rotting flesh,” he said of their two-kilometre trek. “As we walked many people saw us on the street and they joined us,” said Mr Lucman. The audacious escape took place yesterday morning after people started receiving text messages warning of an imminent major assault by Philippine aircraft and ground troops in the centre of Marawi, a town of more than 200,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao.
Although the Philippines is a Catholic-majority country, the population in Mindanao and particularly Marawi is mostly Muslim.
“We had a tip from the general commander that we should go out,” said Leny Paccon who gave refuge to 54 people in her home, including 44 Christians. “When I got the text, immediately we went out at about 7 o’clock.” By then, Mr Lucman and his guests had begun their escape march from another area, holding white flags and moving briskly.
He described a scene of devastation in the town centre, and estimated that he had seen more than 1,000 bodies.
Official government estimates yesterday said 120 militants, 38 government troops and 20 civilians were killed.
Some of the civilians were stopped and asked if there were any Christians among them, said Jaime Daligdig, a Christian construction worker. But they were allowed to pass after they shouted “Allahu Akbar”.
Arnold Balo, 28, an ice-cream factory worker, said he cradled a boy in one hand and carried a half-metre machete in the other, their only protection from the gunmen as he escaped. At one point, a gunman perched near the top of a building aimed a rifle at him and ordered him to put his weapon on the ground, Mr Balo said.
“I told him, ‘I will do as you order sir. Please don’t kill us’,” he said. Mr Balo dropped the machete, and was allowed to pass.
Twenty-three Christian teachers and 15 companions also ran to safety yesterday from another area of Marawi.
“We lay on the floor in the dark each night whenever we heard gunshots or explosions. We barricaded the doors with furniture and a refrigerator,” said Jerona Sedrome, 27, a highschool teacher.
But after two attempts, the militants forced their way in and the teachers hid in a tunnel below the house.
The rescued teachers survived on steamed rice and rainwater over nearly two weeks of air strikes and gunfire that destroyed many of the surrounding houses. “If it didn’t rain we had no water and we didn’t eat,” said Sedrome’s younger sister and fellow teacher, Jane Rose Sedrome, 25.
As they walked through the streets they saw gruesome results of the battle that erupted in Marawi on May 23. “We passed through three corpses being eaten by maggots,” said fellow teacher Regene Apao, 23. “We knew they were ISIL because they wore black clothing and black head masks.” Marawi has become a war zone since hundreds of gunmen rampaged through the city.
The onslaught was part of a grand plan to establish a SouthEast Asian caliphate, defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday.
He said there were about 250 gunmen – about five times the military’s original estimate – who were holding strategic buildings in downtown Marawi and there was no indication they would surrender or flee. Nor could Mr Lorenzana say how long the military operation to flush them out would last because of mounting fears of civilian casualties. About 2,000 civilians remained trapped in Marawi.
“We believe this is ISIL because normally in this kind of conflict the local fighters will just scamper away and maybe hide in the mountains,” he said.
“But surprisingly this group has just holed up there and are just waiting to fight it out, maybe to the last.”
Of the 120 militants killed, eight were from Chechnya, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said Mr Lorenzana.