By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
CAMP Alagar stepped up security measures in northern Mindanao over the weekend even as it urged the public to be “extra vigilant” in the wake of intelligence reports that at least two Maute Group bomb experts may have succeeded in entering the city.
Supt. Lemuel Gonda, Camp Alagar spokesman, said police regional director Chief Supt. Agripino Javier alerted police units throughout Region 10 in response to the reports.
“We have also alerted the business sector regarding this information that we have received,” Gonda said.
He said the intelligence information is that the two bomb experts were between 25 to 30 years old.
A copy of a June 9 memo purportedly from Supt. Danildo Tumanda, Camp Alagar’s intelligence chief, showed that a bombing operation in the city “is now highly likely,” and that the suspects may have even checked in in one of the city’s hotels.
Gonda said he saw a copy of the document but he could not confirm that it came from Tumanda’s office. He however said it contains a similar intelligence information that the police has.
He said the intelligence information still needed validation. In the meantime, he said, the public should be “extra careful and security conscious” whether the intelligence information is accurate or inaccurate.
The intelligence information was revealed following the arrest of terrorism suspect Orminta Romato Maute, also known as “Farhana,” in Barangay Kormatan, Masiu town in Lanao del Sur on Friday afternoon. The suspect is the mother of Abdullah, Mhade, and Omar Maute, leaders of a terrorist group fighting government forces in strife-torn Marawi City.
Supt. Rolando Anduyan, leader of a government task force in Lanao del Sur, said authorities caught the Maute matriarch with other women while trying to escape in a grey Toyota Revo vehicle.
Anduyan said authorities found and seized various high-powered firearms and explosives.
Chief Supt. Rueben Sindac, police director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said law enforcers have long been tracking down the Maute brothers’ mother who reportedly purchased vehicles and weapons.
Police said Orminta or Farhana actively helped her two sons, Abdullah and Omarkhayyam, in their operations.
Their father, Cayamora Maute, was arrested at a checkpoint in Sirawan, Davao City, on Wednesday.
Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesperson of the Joint Task Force Marawi, told a news conference on Saturday that they were validating a report that two of the Maute Group founders, Omar and Mhade Maute, were killed in the military offensives in Marawi City.
As of Saturday, the government lost some 58 men in the Marawi clashes.
Thirteen Marines were killed during Friday’s skirmishes, Herrera said. One of the fatalities was 1Lt. Sevillano, commander of a Marine company that stumbled on P52 million in cash in a Marawi house that was allegedly used by the Maute Group.
“We are on the offensive mode. We are constantly moving toward the position of enemies. Unfortunately, we incurred several casualties. We are doing our best to re-strategize,” he said. “The enemy has strong defensive positions… We are making adjustments in our offensives… We hit the logistical hubs, several command and control and communications and snipers’ nest of Maute… We have so many head ways, we are close to their exact positions, lumalakas ang firefight.” (with reports from pna)
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