#maute

Marawi Update as of May 28, 2017, 2:19 pm local time 

As Ramadan has begun, thousands of people displaced from the fighting in Marawi are celebrating the holy month away from their homes, waiting for the fighting to stop so they can go back. To those still in the city, they wake up to gun shots, airstrikes, and pray that it will be over soon.

As of right now airstrikes and ongoing fire fight are still going on, however there has been more emphasis on airstrikes. The Maute group have been rounding up and killing Christians. Some were fleeing Marawi to Iligan but were stopped by Maute members where they separated the Christian citizens from those who were Muslim. They were told to recite Islamic prayers to prove they were Muslim and those who couldn’t were taken and killed. Eight bodies have been found, in a ditch, tied up, with gunshot wounds to their heads with placards saying “munafik”, traitor, by them, less than a kilometer away from a security checkpoint on the Iligan-Marawi border. They were bakers from a local bakery according to two women who identified them.

Those still trapped in the city are desperately hiding their Christian friends in hidden rooms, teaching them how to recite Islamic prayers in case their homes are raided and they are found by Maute members, to help them not be captured.

People who haven’t left Marawi yet but are fleeing to Iligan have been told by the military to wave white flags while walking through the streets of Marawi to show the military that they are innocent civilians passing through and not Maute members.

So far, 19 civilians including the 8 men found in the ditch, are currently known to have died. Among the 19 dead include 3 women and a young child found by the military near one of the universities during a rescue operation.

Philippine security forces detained Monaliza Romato, the ‘matriarch’ of the Islamic-State affiliated militant group responsible for attacking Marawi, on Wednesday following a raid on a terrorist cell in Cagayan de Oro city, about 100 km from the fighting on the on the southern island of Mindanao.

They also captured two further suspects found with ammunition and bomb-making materials. Romato is believed to have superseded her aunt, Ominta Maute, as the top female organizer in the militant group after Maute was arrested last month. Maute’s sons Abdullah and Omarkhayam established the Maute militant group, originally known as Dawlah Islamiya, in 2012.

“[Monaliza] is providing financial and logistical support to the Maute terrorist group, and her house in Cagayan de Oro served as a sanctuary and transit point for Maute terrorist members,” military spokesman Brigadier General Restituto Padilla told the Straits Times.

According to Chief Inspector Mardy Hortillosa, a police spokesman, the cell was preparing bomb attacks in Cagayan de Oro in a bid to divert attention away from Marawi. Irene Idris, a fourth suspect and one of the terrorist group’s financiers, managed to escape arrest.

News of the bust emerged not long after the Philippine military announced that it had discovered two beheaded Vietnamese sailors on neighbouring Basilan island. The two men were part of a group of six kidnapped last year by Abu Sayyaf, a radical Islamist group that has engaged in brutal kidnap-and-ransom activities since the 1990s.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte responded to the group’s barbarity with a typically gruesome threat. “I will eat your liver if you want. I will just add salt and vinegar, I will eat it in front of you,” he said during a speech at the presidential palace on Wednesday, the second time he has made such a threat. “What are you really trying to prove? You take the name of Allah in vain?”

Both the Maute group and Abu Sayaaf were born out of frustration with the way in which their respective predecessors, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), had pursued independence for the island of Mindanao, where over 90% of the country’s Muslims live.

While the Maute group and Abu Sayaaf continue to wage campaigns of terror in the Southern Philippines, the MILF and MNLF are now both involved in peace talks with the government.

Mohagher Iqbal, chairman of the MILF peace implementing panel, said recently that a large majority of the local population still preferred a non-violent process.

Martial law was intended for the terrorists. So what i don’t understand is wtf are you people afraid of so much?

The fact that it’s MINDANAO which is under martial law, I ask you, -a person in Luzon or Visayas OR ANYWHERE WHICH IS CURRENTLY NOT UNDER martial law- 

Why are you so afraid of it?

Maybe because of your ‘fears’ that our president would be a carbon copy of Ferdinand Marcos.

Fear that he’d end up being a dictator like Marcos?

Well let me tell you what our fear is.- 

Ah, actually. Scratch that.

Let me tell you what we’re terrified of.

We’re terrified for our safety against these terrorists.

We’re terrified that maybe a bomb would suddenly blow up somewhere near us.

We’re terrified because we don’t know what the Maute has up their sleeves.

So no, I don’t give a goddamn flying fuck about your so-called ‘fears’.

Because people in Lanao del Sur are inside their homes scared because the town just beside them has been attacked and people were killed. The cities here are in total lockdown, security is tightened. Check points are everywhere.

So why are you scared? This law was to ensure that the TERRORISTS would get what they deserve. So frankly, you’ve got nothing to worry about if you’re not a terrorist. - unless of course you are, which is a different story.

And to be honest?

Mindanao Under Attack by Islamists, Martial Law Declared

The Philippine island of Mindanao came under attack from Islamic extremists and ISIS fighters who teamed up to lay siege to Marawi City. President Rodrigo Duterte left an important meeting in Moscow, Russia to go home and deal with the crisis. He declared Martial Law to be in effect for 60 days. The announcement was made by spokesperson Ernesto Abella shortly after 10 p.m. on Tuesday. When…