Remaining Maute stragglers have no impact in security — AFP

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla (PCOO photo)

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Friday assured the public that the remaining Maute stragglers have no impact on the overall security in the war-torn Marawi City.

AFP spokesperson Major General Restituto Padilla said that the reported 36 stragglers who were revealed by the arrested Indonesian militant Muhammad Ilham Syaputra were leaderless and just fighting for their survival.

“Yung deklarasyon ng liberation ay noong punto na wala na itong bearing. Yung mga naiiwan diyan na stragglers [The declaration of liberation came when it has no more bearings. The stragglers who were left in the area], they are leaderless, they have no direction, they are merely fighting for survival. They have no impact on the overall security of the place,” Padilla said.

Padilla also said that there are 16 out of 96 villages in the city battle-damaged city that will not be occupied yet to secure the safety of residents as the forces continue its clearing operations.

“We don’t have the exact numbers but based on the revelation of this last foreign national that was captured, he mentioned about 36. But we are still validating that number because there are about three buildings here that seem to house them and that’s on the process of being checked,” Padilla added.

Padilla also stressed that the government forces are ensuring that no one in the remaining stragglers will be able to escape as they are conducting a “deliberate and careful” clearing operations in some facilities which could be considered as the hiding place of the extremists.

“The reason why we’re trying to restrict that area is to ensure that not one of these terrorists may be able to escape because one terrorist who is able to escape has the potential to inflict harm on many of our nationals,” he said.

“Our forces remain on the alert, remain vigilant, and will continue to perform the clearing operations until such time that we can guarantee that this place, the last parts where the battle has raged in the last few weeks, is already free of every single terrorist,” Padilla stressed.

He said that the government troops will not stop their clearing operation until the battle-damaged city is liberated from “every single terrorist.”