In Photo: New Armed Forces chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo M. Año (right) and outgoing chief Gen. Ricardo R. Visaya salute during the change-of-command ceremony at Camp Aguinaldo in Quezon City on December 7.
THE military is intensely pursuing the Maute Group, also known as the Dawla Islamiya, in the aftermath of its recent attack and nearly weeklong occupation of Butig in Lanao del Sur, where it even hoisted the black emblem of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), which is currently being pummeled by Iraqi and Syrian forces in the Middle East.
The pursuit operation is being carried out simultaneously with the ongoing offensive against the other terrorist Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in the provinces of Sulu and Basilan, which have seen the spike of kidnapping cases during the past several weeks.
The twin operations were being undertaken as the Armed Forces has learned its lesson from the ASG, the original homegrown terrorist group that has evolved into Mindanao’s foremost security threat from being a ragtag jihadist group in the 1990s. Such metamorphosis happened right under the government’s nose.
While it may be a tall order to defeat the Maute Group in the short term, especially now that it is already aligned with the Isis and even backed by the regional terror group Jemaah Islamiyah, it is still possible to break the group since it is still on its infancy.
Grappling with terrorism
No less than President Duterte has warned about the danger posed by the Maute Group with matching words of urgency for the military to lick it, along with the ASG problem, with his statements that the country would have to grapple with terrorism within the next two to three years.
The Commander in Chief again conveyed this sense of urgency when he gathered top military officials right after installing former Army Commanding General Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año as chief of staff of the Armed Forces.
“The President reiterated his directive to us…that he wanted terrorism to be addressed properly, particularly the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in Sulu and Basilan and other terrorist groups, like the Maute Group,” Año said after the command conference.
Duterte wanted the military to do more in addressing the problem, ordering the officials to ensure that terrorist groups would not have the capabilities to carry out their activities.
Año, whose designation as top military chief was seen as part of the effort in dealing with the existing threat of terrorism, refused to give a time frame in achieving the goal, but ensured he would see to it that the directive is achieved.
“We will do our best to make sure that these lawless groups will no longer be a threat to our people in the area,” he said.
Compared with his predecessor, retired Armed Forces Chief of Staff Gen. Ricardo R. Visaya, who failed Duterte both in the campaign against the ASG and the Maute Group, Año is highly respected by his peers for his intelligence and operational grit.
It was under Visaya’s term that the ASG committed a rash of kidnappings, snatching Indonesian and Malaysian seafarers, while the Maute Group occupied the whole municipality of Butig.
Pushing on with the campaign
Just a day after Año was given full control of the military, fighters of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who were supported by elements of the Army’s 37th Infantry Battalion encountered Maute members at the Mount Cararao complex within the triboundary of Buldon and Barira in Maguindanao and Butig in Lanao del Sur.
The Maute fighters led by two of their leaders, Omar and Abdullah Maute, were withdrawing from Butig, which they have occupied earlier, as government troops pursued them.
The municipalities of Buldon and Barira were considered traditional strongholds of the MILF, which has signed a preliminary peace agreement with the previous administration, and which the Duterte administration wanted to make permanent by working on a final agreement.
The involvement of the MILF in the antiterrorism campaign, finally, has been courted by the Duterte administration, believing that as a peace ally, the MILF has to do its share or even perform its task at the other end of the peace table.
The tapping of the MILF’s help, at least in the case of the Maute, which could translate to the denial of a sanctuary for the Lanao-based terrorist group and would therefore constrict its movement, was a new tack for the administration.
The government was also working for the same arrangement with the Moro National Liberation Front in the case of the ASG in Sulu and Basilan.
Surrender or die
Dropping his antidrugs slogan, Duterte gave the fleeing Maute Group the only choice of yielding to the government or perish.
The Commander in Chief enumerated the options as he dismissed the group’s quid pro quo call of a stop to the military’s pursuit operation in exchange for the Maute to stop its attacks.
Duterte said there would be no let up in the campaign against Maute and even with the ASG, an operation that failed previous military commanders, including Visaya, but which will test the mettle of Año once more.
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/military-ready-to-deal-final-blow-to-mindanao-based-terrorists/
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