{"id":124534,"date":"2017-10-18T01:20:53","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:20:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=124534"},"modified":"2017-10-18T01:20:53","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T05:20:53","slug":"palace-urges-remaining-maute-terrorists-return-to-road-of-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/10\/18\/palace-urges-remaining-maute-terrorists-return-to-road-of-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace urges remaining Maute terrorists: Return to road of peace"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Tuesday urged all fighters to help in the peace process. (PCOO Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Malaca\u00f1ang called on remaining Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists to halt further resistance in the battleground in war-torn Marawi City following the death of its two leaders.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella on Tuesday urged all fighters to return to the “road of peace.”<\/p>\n

\u201cWith terrorist leaders gone, we call on all fighters to cease further resistance and violence and return to the road of peace,\u201d Abella said during the Mindanao Hour press briefing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is also the call of our Muslim leaders, our imams, ARMM, MNLF, MILF chiefs, and the leaders of Muslim nations and this is the plea of your families, friends, and communities,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed on Monday that Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon and Omar Maute have been killed in an operation carried out by the government forces.<\/p>\n

Lorenzana added that the deaths of the two leaders indicate the continuing conflict in Marawi City is near its end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe implication of this is that the end of the Marawi incident is near and we may announce the termination of hostilities in a couple of days,\u201d Lorenzana said.<\/p>\n

[Read: Hapilon, Maute deaths mean Marawi conflict near its end\u2014Lorenzana<\/a>]<\/p>\n

\u201cWe confirm that government forces killed Omar Maute and Isnilon Hapilon early morning today, Monday, the 16th of October in Marawi City,\u201d Abella also verified on Monday.<\/p>\n

President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday announced that Marawi City has been set free from the Maute group,\u00a0after the deaths of its top two leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cLadies and gentlemen, I hereby declare Marawi City liberated from the terrorists\u2019 influence that marks the beginning of rehabilitation,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

[Read:\u00a0Duterte announces \u2018Marawi is free\u2019<\/a>]<\/p>\n

Abella also lauded the armed forces for\u00a0their battle is near to victory.<\/p>\n

He noted that hundreds of hostages were saved with no violations of rights and religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has laid a strong foundation for peace and recovery,\u201d Abella said.<\/p>\n

He added that government will intensify offensives across Mindanao to counter further attacks and to destroy ISIS cells.<\/p>\n

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Spokesperson Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. the killings of the two leaders are among the most positive developments.<\/p>\n

Padilla, however, clarified that this doesn’t\u00a0imply the end of hostilities,\u00a0noting the remaining\u00a0area occupied by about 20 to 30 armed elements and the existence of around 20 hostages.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we speak, our troops have remained in the battle area continuing to pursue the armed elements and seeking to rescue the remaining hostages in about two hectares of space that remains to be the battle area,\u201d Padilla said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd before we can finally announce the end of the Marawi siege, there is a need to clear all these buildings of all unexploded ordnance as well as IEDs that may have been left by these retreating terrorists,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Padilla also stressed that there are still about 60 to 80 buildings that need to be cleared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malaca\u00f1ang called on remaining Islamic State-inspired Maute terrorists to halt further resistance in the battleground in war-torn Marawi City following …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":122705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[18684,17992,28229,978,12048,25798,15555],"class_list":["post-124534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-armed-forces-of-the-philippines-afp","tag-defense-secretary-delfin-lorenzana","tag-maj-gen-restituto-padilla-jr","tag-malacanang","tag-marawi-city","tag-maute-terrorists","tag-presidential-spokesperson-ernesto-abella","mauthors-carlo-jacob-molina","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}