Marawi City (CNN Philippines, October 27) — Neighboring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia will likely benefit from the death of terrorist leader Isnilon Hapilon and other foreign militants in Marawi, the military said.
“Ang laki ng impact nito sa Southeast Asia… I can assure that most of these yung machinery nila, saka yung kanilang command and control has been crippled, tremendously,” Western Mindanao Command chief Lieutenant General Carlito Galvez said Wednesday.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday said the government has tagged more than 60 Malaysian, Indonesian and Filipino terrorists fighting ISIS in Iraq who could attempt to slip into the Philippines.
The country conducts joint sea and air patrols with Indonesia and Malaysia to prevent the movement of militants from one country to another.
The international terrorist network ISIS gave the Maute group at least $1.5 million (around ₱77.9 million) for the Marawi siege, retired Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff Gen. Eduardo Año told CNN Philippines on Wednesday.
Hapilon and the ISIS
When the army assaulted a hideout of the ISIS-inspired Maute group on October 16, they had no idea it was a strike on the group’s core leaders.
The heavy fighting ended with the death of Hapilon and Omar Maute, one of the brothers who led the Maute group.
Hapilon is a former Abu Sayyaf leader and the so-called “emir” of the ISIS in Southeast Asia. He was also in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s “most wanted” terrorists list with a $5-million (around ₱259.7-million) bounty on his head.
Hapilon and Maute’s deaths led President Rodrigo Duterte to declare the liberation of Marawi the following day, five months after government forces and terrorists fought for control of the city.
All seven brothers behind the Maute group are dead. They are part of 920 terrorists killed in Marawi since the siege began on May 23, prompting Duterte to declare martial law throughout Mindanao.
Galvez said ground commanders patterned their strategies after the U.S.-led military campaign to recapture ISIS-controlled Aleppo and Raqqa in Syria, and Mosul in Iraq.
Like these battle-scarred cities in the Middle East, liberating Marawi came with a price — 165 troops and 47 civilians dead, over 300,000 residents displaced, and a city left in ruins.
The military said clearing operations are still ongoing in Marawi to retrieve all cadavers.
Ruins of Marawi
Thousands of evacuees are expected to return to the war-torn city on Sunday.
Some of them opted to return home as early as Thursday, but were shocked to see their homes not just damaged, but also looted.
The local government, meanwhile, is in the process of restoring power and water supply in some barangays.
The government said rebuilding Marawi will cost more than ₱50 billion.
CNN Philippines Correspondent Rex Remitio and Digital Producer Eimor Santos contributed to this report.
