Lorenzana admits ongoing Marawi battle “a lesson for everyone”

July 25, 2017

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana admitted to a business forum on Tuesday what happened in Marawi is “a lesson for everyone” after President Rodrigo Duterte revealed there was a failure in intelligence. “What happened in Marawi is a lesson for everyone of us in the defense department. We failed to appreciate the looming problem because they were trying to infiltrate from the outside towards Marawi City. A lot of firearms, a lot of fighters, foreign and local,” he said during the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) General Membership meeting in Makati. “When this Marawi incident blew up in May 23, there were only about 200 to 250 fighters. It turned out there were more than 700 at the start of the conflict. That is why up to today fighting goes on. We still incur casualties almost every day,” Lorenzana added. Like what Duterte revealed during the press conference after his second State of the Nation Address last Monday, Lorenzana made the same admission. “There are a lot of talks coming around that there was failure of intelligence. Yeah, in a way it was. I said when we were in Moscow when this thing blew up and i was asked by one of the media people there, was it a failure of intelligence? I said now, it was a failure to appreciate intelligence,” he said. “For the longest time, I think the Armed Forces of the Philippines were in denial of this fact and when I assumed the position of Secretary of Defense, I was told there was no ISIS in the Philippines. So we were keeping that stand until in November when we had this operation in Butig against the Maute group so then we would change our stance and said they are there,” he added. Lorenzana said because of two more soldiers killed in Marawi City last Monday,  the number of fatalities on the government side has 110. “Just yesterday we had two killed again … and about more than dozen wounded. Three days before we had nine killed and 45 wounded. That’s how intense the fighting there in Marawi so it will take some more time for us to clear Marawi because we have to do it slowly,” he said. Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Western Mindanao Command, said the number of enemy killed stands at 453 while wounded reached around 900. During the meeting, Lorenzana said after more than two months of fighting in Marawi City the defense department hopes that it will be finished “in a month or so”. “We will be able to finish Marawi in a month or so, so that is actually it like an open ended ( goal) but we hope to finish it soon. The reason being our troops are already tired there. We are having a lot of casualties, the evacuees, the displaced people are already complaining that they want to go back to their homes and we would like start the rehabilitation of Marawi so that’s why we want also the conflict to end soon,” he said. (Robina Asido/DMS)