Military still clearing four barangays in Marawi City: spokesman

May 31, 2017

Government forces are still clearing four barangays in Marawi City from the Maute Group, a military spokesman said Wednesday. Lt. Col. Jo-ar Herrera, spokesman of the Army’s 1st Infantry Division, said troops are still trying to clear the barangays of Banggolo, Raya Madaya I, Raya Madaya II and Lilod Madaya. Herrera said the military has cleared six barangays, including Basak Malutlut where the first clash was recorded last week. “The affected barangays is down to four, from a high of nine to 10 before. We're controlling the (tempo)....This is apparently their last hurrah. They are pinned down in these battle positions that we are clearing,” Herrera said. Herrera noted that the fighting is in a small portion of the affected barangays of Marawi City which has a total of 96 barangays and a population of 201,785. He said based on their estimate there are around 30 to 40 Maute group members who are still within the four barangays.. Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesman, said aside from ground troops, the military are using helicopters and SF260 planes against the terrorist group. “We employ the commensurate force against whatever resistance there are in the area, we don’t bomb a building because there’s one sniper on top, it doesn’t work that way,” Padilla said. Padilla said the number of fatalities on government side reached 21 with 72 wounded, while a total of 89 terrorist group members were killed and 91 firearms recovered. (Robina Asido/DMS)