Army says troops clear 40 buildings, rescued hostage claims Catholic priest alive and militant leader Omar Maute dead

July 3, 2017

MARAWI CITY — Soldiers have cleared 40 buildings occupied by the Maute group  and said a Catholic priest is alive but  a leader of  the militants died in the last 48 hours. “It shows that we have moved forward in closing in to our enemies. But our clearing combat operations still continue. We have recovered also war materials and weapons left behind by the enemies,” Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesman of the Joint Task Force Marawi, said Monday. “We will come into a point where we will not use anymore air strikes if we will be in close range battle. The purpose of using the air strikes is to soften the strong defensive position of the enemies,” he said Herrera said a civilian rescued by soldiers told them one of the leaders of gunmen, Omar Maute died in the fighting. “In our intelligence community, this is only a confirmation of our early report. But we have to check the body,” he said. Herrera said Fr.Chito Suganob, vicar general of Marawi City, is till alive based on the accounts of another hostage who escaped. Suganob is being held with a female professor from Mindanao State University, two female church workers, two male and five female teachers from Dansalan Foundation College and “about 200 carpenters, domestic workers, children and youth, ordinary Christian settlers and other Subanen tribes. “He is alive. He is being used as cook for the militants and hostages. Visually, they saw him three days ago,” Herrera said. For Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, Herrera said they are trying to find out where he is. “His men were disappointed with him because he cannot be contacted. The men inside lost their command and control. From what we learned, they have problems with money. He got the big chunks,” he said. DMS