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Thursday, June 15, 2017
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“IT MAY TAKE some time.” That was what the military spokesperson Brigadier General Restituto Padilla Jr. said on Wednesday of the operation to rid Marawi City of the Maute group when he announced that the Armed Forces stopped putting a deadline on its offensives against the Islamic State-inspired organization.
Authorities failed to liberate the besieged city on the 119th anniversary of Philippine independence on Monday — a self-imposed deadline. “For now we will not set deadlines,” Padilla told Mindanao Hour, a conference giving updates on the situation in the region currently under martial law. “We will ensure that we will be able to clear it of any armed element that still exists, and it may take some time.”
What Padilla announced was an open admission of the difficulty of the task at hand — averting the further escalation, and possible spillover, of the attacks, the plan for which, according to some top officials, the Duterte administration knew days before May 23, when the ongoing clashes began.
While the fight in Marawi is currently the most important national security concern, it is not the only problem of the Duterte administration. Crimes of all sorts pervade various corners of the country, and authorities must get all hands on deck to make sure there is no hole to take advantage of. It is also a time to acknowledge the need to tap foreign allies who may help quell local extremists with an apparent link to an international terrorist organization.
Padilla said June 12 was a “very symbolic” and “very meaningful day for all of us.” The significance is not lost on us. But a clear and honest picture of the progress in Mindanao is what Filipinos deserve now more than promises that cannot be fulfilled.
The key to preventing the clashes from getting worse is now in the hands of Philippine authorities well-informed and trained on how to deal with situations similar to what transpires in Marawi, and the administration that leads the execution of plans, all while tending to other matters of equal importance without losing its mind.
For the ordinary Filipinos, vigilance will do more good for now. This can be done by equipping yourself with trustworthy information from sectors that exist to give you one. It is time to disabuse ourselves of the notion that just because the exchange of gunfire happens in the south it has nothing to do with the rest of us. This is going to go on for a while — until the authorities say it’s over.
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