AFP on 15 more days needed to end Marawi conflict: We’ll do our best

COMBAT READY Armored personnel carriers deployed by the Philippine Army drive down a village road in Marawi. —AFP

The Armed Forces of the Philippines on Wednesday said it will do its best to end the Marawi conflict within 15 days, as per the assessment of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“The AFP will do its best, as it has been giving its level best, to crush the rebellion of the Maute-ISIS Group,” AFP public affairs chief Col. Edgard Arevalo said.

Duterte on Tuesday said that 10 to 15 more days are needed to finish the conflict in war-torn Marawi City, which reached its 51st day on Wednesday.

While he sees the fighting will end soon, the President said that the ISIS threat will continue to persist.

“The Commander-in-Chief is aware of the complexities of the ongoing operations because he is being briefed regularly,” he said.

Meanwhile, Marawi City Crisis Management Committee spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong appealed to the government to be as aggressive in providing humanitarian assistance to the victims of the conflict.

“Since the President is asking for 15 more days, we would also like to appeal that this crisis should not only be dealt with military action, we also want to appeal before the national leadership to be as aggressive to the services we would like to extend to our IDPs (internally displaced persons) in terms of humanitarian, relief, and medical assistance,” he said in a press briefing.

“We are now entering the rainy season and we expect that there will be problems that will emerge — problems of sanitation, problems of lack of supply of food and water, so we want to national leadership to take in charge of providing needs of IDPs,” he added. Frances Mangosing/JE

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