Army battalion sought for Lanao town vs Mautes

COTABATO CITY – Officials of Butig town in Lanao del Sur urged President Duterte on Saturday to deploy a battalion of soldiers in the area to prevent the Maute group from returning.

An official of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) yesterday said the town has been cleared of the militants and is now under the control of the military.

Col. Edgardo Arevalo, AFP public affairs office chief, said government troops are conducting pursue operations against the Maute group.

Arevalo said the civilians were not yet allowed to return home as the military have yet to clear the area of explosives planted by the militants.

The Maute group reportedly enjoys the support of local Islamic schools, which provide fanatical students to help them fight government forces.

The municipal peace and order council told The STAR that more than half of the group’s members are jobless men from nearby towns and students of an Islamic school in Marawi City.

Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. said the school is currently monitored by local authorities.

Local executives from Lanao del Sur urged the Department of Education to look into the activities of the Islamic school, whose name was withheld pending results of an investigation.

Maranaw mayors confirmed that the school first sent students to Butig to help the Maute group fight the Army.

“Certain students of the school were reportedly absent from classes during the recent incursion in Butig,” a local official said during a local government summit of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in Davao City on Thursday.

Duterte was the event’s guest speaker.

Mayors are worried of more clandestined attacks by militants on Maranaw peasant communities to avenge the death of 22 Mautes last week. – With Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño, Cecille Suerte Felipe