Military to do its ‘level best’ to meet Duterte’s deadline

RUINED CITY Airstrikes and artillery bombardment have left much of Marawi City in ruins. —AFP

The military will do its best to finish the Marawi siege in 15 days as declared by President Rodrigo Duterte, a spokesperson of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Wednesday.

“The 15 days is a period within which the President hopes the crisis in Marawi to end. The AFP will do its best, as it has been giving its level best, to crush the rebellion of the Maute-Isis group,” Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP public affairs chief, told reporters in a text message.

Earlier, top defense and security officials said they were no longer setting deadlines to finish the fighting in Marawi, given that they have missed previous deadlines because of the difficulty posed by the urban warfare.

But Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana had said that ground commanders were directed to end the conflict before the President gives his second State of the Nation Address on July 24.

Lorenzana has yet to respond to an Inqurier inquiry if President Duterte discussed the new 15-day period with him and AFP chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año.

Arevalo reiterated that the President, as the commander in chief, “is aware of the complexities of the ongoing operations because he is being briefed regularly; that we are continuously gaining ground in the main battle area.”

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