By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent
MARAWI City–Daily broadcasts reverberating from the loudspeakers are heard all over the urban battlefield where troops are fighting the fanatical Maute Group among the ruins and gutted buildings.
The broadcasts urge the militants to surrender and lay down their firearms.
“Surrender now! The government knows where you are hiding,” aired one broadcast from the loudspeakers. “Your families are waiting for you.”
The preecorded broadcasts are aired in Meranaw, Tausug, Yakan and Maguindanao dialects that are spoken by Filipino Muslims.
The daily broadcasts are blasted from loudspeakers placed in strategic areas along the battlefront in Marawi City.
Just below the loudspeakers, Marine officers, unmindful to the noise, bunched together studying a map on a table.
The Marines are receiving reports from the field of the location of the gunmen.
Peering closely at the map, an officer gave the coordinates to the Marines with 81mm mortars nearby.
Barrage after barrage were then let loose toward the directions of the militants in a never ending violence that have been familiar to Marawi City in the past two months.
“These loudspeakers are good psychological weapons. They are very effective,” Marine Lt. Col. Bill Pasia said.
“If our mortars are not effective, these loudspeakers are a big help persuading the Isis-Maute militants to surrender,” he added.
Pasia said a number of militants especially those who were only forced to fight by the militants, surrendered after listening for some time to the broadcasts.
He could not however, give the exact number of the gunmen who surrendered, saying only their intelligence officers have the figures.
Pasia said the broadcasts aired in loudspeakers costing some P8,000 each, was very effective in the 2013 Zamboanga siege.
“A number of the terrorists also surrendered in Zamboanga after listening to the broadcasts,” Pasia said.
He said the broadcasts also included instructions on how the militants can surrender without getting shot by troops.
Pasia said they also have preecorded broadcasts for civilians trapped inside Marawi City who wanted to get out.
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