PH flag flies as bombs rain on Marawi City

MARAWI CITY—Bomb blasts rocked Marawi on Monday as the national flag was raised to mark the 119th anniversary of Philippine independence, almost three weeks after Islamic State-inspired gunmen overran the city and hunkered down with civilians as human shields.

The military had hoped to clear Marawi of the Islamist gunmen from the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups by Monday, but officials said retaking the city from the terrorists would take longer.

Rescue workers, soldiers and firemen sang the national anthem and listened to speeches at the provincial capitol as three OV-10 attack planes darted through the cloudy sky, taking turns to drop bombs on areas where fighters from the Maute terror group were still holed up.

‘Meaningless fight’

“To our Muslim brothers there, we want to tell them to stop their meaningless fight because we are all Muslims,” Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. told the gathering.

“Please be patient, my Maranao brothers and sisters. We will eventually reclaim Marawi if we work together,” he said.

Adiong said Maranaos should seek Allah’s help in bringing peace back to Marawi, considered the center of Maranao culture and history.

“The terrorists want to wrest it from us, we should not allow that to happen. Let us unite for peace,” he said.

The siege, he said, has been doubly painful because it has come during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims around the world fast and stay united.

“It is very sad to think that we are not in our houses, we are not with our families,” Adiong said.

Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesperson for the provincial government, said the flag was simultaneously raised in Lanao del Sur’s 39 towns at 8 a.m. on Monday despite the fighting and airstrikes on terrorist positions.

Flag ceremonies are normally performed twice a week, but this was the first in the mainly Muslim city since May 23, the first day of the siege, when the terrorists killed and abducted Christians and torched a cathedral.

Almost the entire population of about 200,000 fled from the lakeside city, but beyond the checkpoints fencing Marawi off,  there are still some 500 to 1,000 civilians trapped or being held hostage.

As of the weekend, the number of terrorists killed by government forces stood at 138.

The death toll for civilians was 20, although there were reports that more people had died in the conflict.

Fifty-eight soldiers had been killed and more than 200  wounded in the fighting.

Test of strength

Businesses remained shuttered on Monday and while the government had tried to put a semblance of normality back, no one dared to go back to work.

Burst of automatic gunfire punctuated by airstrikes continued as the government tried to push the terrorists out of the city.

“Marawi has never been isolated as much before,” Adiong, the spokesperson for the provincial government, said. “This is a test of our strength as a people. The impact of the fighting has been massive.”

But as the fighting entered a third week, Adiong said the provincial government hoped it would “eventually liberate Marawi City.”

“We will overcome this crisis. We are adamant that the lawless elements will not get their way,” he said.

The national flag was also raised at the City Hall, with Mayor Majul Usman Gandamra and soldiers performing the ceremony after an OV-10 attack aircraft ended a bombing run.

Gandamra, crying as he spoke, rallied Maranaos to fight the terrorists.

“Let us not fear them. They are evil, and Allah said evil would never triumph,” he said.

Col. Jose Maria Cuerpo, deputy commander of the 103rd Infantry Brigade, said security forces, despite mounting losses, would press the fight and restore peace and order in the city.

“But our battle would not stop even if we had already defeated the enemy. Our biggest task and challenge is the rehabilitation of the city and its residents,” he said.

Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza said the government did not expect the terrorists to surrender soon.

“We just want to give back Marawi to whom it belongs. It belongs to the people of Marawi and if it takes one day, two days, a year, the government is determined to do what is necessary,” Dureza said in Zamboanga City, where he attended Independence Day celebrations.

He said there were “only a few strongholds left” in the commercial center of Marawi.

“They have entrenched themselves in the bigger buildings that cannot be easily cleared. Our soldiers and policemen are there, they go house to house, door to door, that is why, to date, we have already a total of [58] dead soldiers and policemen,  about 290 wounded,” he said.

Isnilon Hapilon, the Abu Sayyaf leader who has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) and is said to be the jihadist group’s leader in Southeast Asia, is believed to be holed up in one of three villages in the central commercial district where the terrorists have slowed down the military’s advance with sniper fire.

On Monday, three days after the government lost 13 Marines in the fighting, soldiers tried to penetrate the area, dodging sniper bullets and returning fire  as they cut the distance between them and the terrorists.

As the two sides exchanged fire, stray bullets landed in the city hall compound, narrowly missing civilians.

“It’s been difficult, they know the terrain. But we are confident of finishing this fight on top,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Campus, a battalion commander from the 1st Infantry Brigade, whose unit was dispatched from Luzon to help dislodge the terrorists from Marawi.

“Today it was a house-to-house fight and running gun battles. We will not give them any more ground,” Campus said, adding that enemy fire had been drastically reduced, indicating the terrorists were either on the run, leaving a few fighters to cover their retreat, or conserving their bullets.

The fighting has been going on since May 23 after a bungled military raid to capture Hapilon.

The siege of Marawi by fighters allied to IS, including some from the Middle East, has alarmed Southeast Asian nations, which fear the ultraradical group—on a back foot in Iraq and Syria—is trying to set up a stronghold in Mindanao that could threaten the region.

President Duterte said on Sunday he had not expected the fighting in Marawi to be as serious as it had turned out, adding it had now emerged “that [Abu Bakr al-] Baghdadi himself, the leader of [IS], has specifically ordered terroristic activities here in the Philippines.”

Mr. Duterte, however, did not say how he knew that al-Baghdadi had given instructions for the attack on Marawi.

Maranao leaders’ plea

Maranao leaders said on Monday that  they wanted to see Mr. Duterte for a discussion of a solution to the crisis.

“Mr. President, we appeal to you to give us time to present our case,” said Maranao leader Samira Gutoc-Tomawis, one of Mr. Duterte’s nominees to the 21-member Bangsamoro Transition Commission working with the government for peace in Mindanao.

“There are things that we want to tell you directly, Mr. President, not through anybody,” she said.

Tomawis, however, refused to say what the Maranao leaders wanted to tell the President, saying only that they had observed something about the siege. —WITH A REPORT FROM THE WIRES