Duterte warns Moros against joining fighting in Marawi

Smoke rises after aerial bombings by Philippine Air Force planes on Islamist militant positions in Marawi in Lanao del Sur in Mindanao on Thursday, June 6, 2017. With bomb-proof tunnels, anti-tank weapons hidden in mosques, human shields and a “mastery” of the terrain, Islamist militants holed up in a southern Philippine city are proving a far tougher opponent than military chiefs expected. (Photo by NOEL CELIS / AFP )

President Rodrigo Duterte warned “fellow Moro” against joining the fray in Marawi, where government troops had been battling it out with extremists holding portions of the city.

Duterte told them to get out of the way and leave Marawi, adding that they would always be welcome in his home city of Davao.

“My warning to my fellow Moro: Do not, do not attempt to play here. If you don’t want to get in trouble, get of the way,” he said in a speech before soldiers of the 1st Mechanized Infantry Division in Sultan Kudarat.

“Do not join in because we would just end up killing each other – we of the same blood – and I don’t want that,” he added.

He made the statement after chiding Maranaos once more for letting the Islamic State into Marawi.

He also disclosed that he had talked over the phone with one of the persons ordered arrested in connection with Marawi siege, whom he identified as “Solitario.”

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana issued Arrest Order No. 2 on Omar Solitario Ali, a former mayor of Marawi.

Ali is the brother of former Marawi Mayor Fahad Salic, who is married to a cousin of Omar and Abdullah Maute, who lead one of the extremists groups staging a rebellion in Marawi.

Salic has been nabbed for rebellion.

An Inquirer report also identified Ali as the government emissary who tried to stage a dialogue with the Maute Group to spare the city from destruction and secure the release of a Catholic priest taken hostage.

The attempt was unsuccessful.

“Solitario called me up,” Duterte said. “Son of a bitch, what’s up with you? Are you a friend of the government or are we foes? I said: ‘Lorenzana wants you arrested. Son of a bitch, I will really have you killed’.”

He also told Solitario to talk with Secretary Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on the peace process, but to make sure he wouldn’t show himself to government forces because he would really be nabbed and he might be killed.

If Solitario would be able to clear his name and show he had no hand in the Marawi incident, that would be the only time he would talk to him, the President said.

Earlier on Friday, Undersecretary Ernesto Abella, presidential spokesperson, said that, when Duterte lamented that the Maranaos allowed the entry of IS, he was not assigning “blanket blame.”

“I would assume that what he’s referring to are basically the sympathizers, the actual sympathizers who would be that. But it’s not a blanket blame,” Abella said. /atm