Starving, three Maute group fighters raise the white flag

ILIGAN City — Three members of the Isis-inspired Maute Group have surrendered to authorities after more than four months of flushing them from Marawi City where they attacked on May 23, the military said over the weekend.

Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy spokesperson of Joint Task Force Ranao, said they cannot give complete details yet about the three surrenderers because they are still “processing” them.

“They said they surrendered kasi hirap na sila, wala nang makain,” Brawner said in a phone interview on Sunday evening.

Brawner said the military operation has continued, cornering the estimated 50 members of the militant group inside the remaining nine hectares in the main battle zone. He added that former hostages who escaped and were rescued recently said there are still 43 of them left in the hands of the militants.

Despite of the previous pronouncements by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that the war will come to an end supposedly on Sept. 30, Brawner said they are not setting deadline on their operations.

“May mga fighters pa sa loob at mga lider nila na kailangan pa nating kunin. May mga hostages pa rin na kailangan nating maescue,” Brawner said.

The military presented on Friday aerial footage of the Maute group looting structures inside the main battle area in Marawi City, while a firefight was ongoing.

Col. Manny Garcia of the Joint Task Force Ranao said the footage was taken by soldiers.

He said this corroborated the revelations of former hostages that the Maute group fighters were looting important materials inside the main battle area.

“The video is undated and the exact location is still being studied with the help of local officials,” Garcia said in a message to reporters.

The military also presented six sacks of coins recovered from the battle zone, saying the terrorists used the coins as shrapnel in making improvised explosive devices.

“In previous incidents, we were wondering why some wounded (soldiers) have coins in their wounds. Ito pala ’yun, ngayon natin na establish na ginagamit nila ang mga coins as shrapnel,” Garcia said.

On Thursday, troops recovered four automated teller machine money vaults from Land Bank. After presenting these to the media, the military immediately turned over the items to the bank’s security manager.

“The money vaults were not opened although some were obviously burned but intact. Improvised grenade with coins as shrapnel, more than 80 firearms and more than 60 burned black flag, and some unexploded ordnance were also recovered by troops,” Garcia said.

Lordvin Acopio, one of the former hostages who escaped and eventually rescued by the military with the priest Chito Soganub, said some terrorists hid inside the main vault of Land Bank during airstrikes.

In the first few weeks of the siege, the military said the terrorists were looting important items, including firearms, ammunition, money and sets of jewelry, and employing hostages as looters by schedule.

In the second week of the crisis, the marines recovered P52 million in cash and P27 million worth of cheques from the militants’ machine gun position. (davao today)