Manila: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has rejected the possibility of using armed civilian volunteers to help fight the Mate militants in Marawi City.
In a recent visit to Cagayan de Oro City, the President was asked to comment on an offer by a Central Mindanao-based Christian sect, the Ilaga, to help counter the threat from Mate.
“I do not think at this time that we have to include the civilian sector. The last thing that I would want to happen is a communal war. This is when civilians would arm themselves. I know that some of the Christians are getting insecure and that is why a lot of them have been looking for heavy firearms. But I have told the gun stores that we cannot have civilians bearing high powered weapons,” he said.
Members of the Ilaga sect, which is largely made up of Ilonggo immigrants from Western Visayas, were drawn into a militia — the Civilian Home Defence Force units — during the mid-1970s as part of the government’s campaign against Islamist rebels led by the Moro National Liberation Front and then later on the communist New Peoples Army.
Feared for their courage and ruthlessness, the Ilaga later on became notorious for committing abuses, the most well known of which was the killing of Italian missionary, Father Tulio Favalli in 1985 in Taluntan town North Cotabato.
A recently released video shows a group of masked men claiming to be members of the Ilaga.
In the video, the men say they are arming themselves against possible attacks from Mate and other Muslim extremist groups.
But Duterte warned that if he allowed armed civilians to join the fighting, the situation could worsen.
“A civil war would not be far off if we allowed elements outside of the military and police to enter the war on terror,” he said.
The president said he had full confidence that the armed forces and the national police were capable of handling the situation.
“I know that they’re capable of doing it. And I said, they are winding up in Marawi except for a few snipers left behind. But I do not think that it would last a little longer than expected,” he added.
Meanwhile, militants holed up in a southern Philippines town have been cornered and their firepower is flagging, the military said on Thursday, as the five-week battle for control of Marawi City raged on.
Despite signs that the insurgents are now on the back foot, Southeast Asian governments are worried that the siege could be just the prelude to further violence as the ultra-radical Daesh group tries to establish a foothold in their region.
Jolted by the May 23 attack on Marawi, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have launched joint patrols to control the movement of militants across their archipelagic region and their foreign ministers gathered in Manila on Thursday for talks.
Malaysia is worried that militants who are flushed out of Marawi City by the fighting may try to cross from the Philippines to its eastern state of Sabah.
“We fear that they may enter the country disguised as illegal immigrants or foreign fishermen,” said Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) chief Wan Abdul Bari Wan Abdul Khalid, according to state news agency Bernama.
It said Esscom had drawn up a “wanted” list that included two militants who spearheaded the attempt to capture Marawi.
They are Abu Sayyaf group leader Isnilon Hapilon, who was proclaimed by Daesh last year as its “emir” of Southeast Asia, and Abdullah Maute, whose followers accounted for a large number of the estimated 400-500 fighters who overran part of the town, killing Christians and taking dozens of civilians hostage.
The fighting in Marawi broke out on May 23.
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera said on Thursday the number of militants holding out in Marawi had dwindled to “a little over 100”.
Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Tampus said: “Their area has been reduced to 1km square only.” Tampus’ troops are blocking escape routes across bridges spanning a river to the west of the militants.
“Our forces are coming from the east and the north and we are blocking the three bridges,” he said.
