THE Maute Group may have acquired its huge stockpile of weapons from other rebel groups such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), President Rodrigo Duterte said over the weekend as government troops continued their operations to drive out islamists in Marawi City.
Duterte admitted that the government knew that Muslim rebels were stockpiling firearms and ammunition in Marawi City but authorities did not intervene because of the peace negotiations with the MILF and MNLF.
“It was not a question of failure on the part of government. It was not a failure of intelligence. It is because we have adopted a very soft policy toward the rebels. These rebels carry firearms. And since we are thinking of getting [a] peace [deal] with the MNLF and MILF, the deal with arms, we really took it for granted,” Duterte said when he visited the 401st Infantry Brigade in Butuan City.
Duterte assured soldiers fighting the Maute Group in Marawi that even if the enemy appears to have an endless source of ammunition, government forces will never lack weapons.
“I assure you [soldiers], you will never run out of weapons…in everything you need. I won’t let you down,” the President said.
Military knew
Political analyst Ramon Casiple said Duterte was right in saying that there was no failure of intelligence on the part of the government because the military was aware of the entry of firearms and ammunition in known MILF areas.
He said the military knew of the movement of weapons in Mindanao but it assumed that the firearms were for the MILF, not the Maute Group.
Casiple explained that the government was not being “soft” on the MILF for allowing it to stockpile firearms because of the ceasefire agreement.
“That is the problem with ceasefire, it only prevents combat, but parties can continue to build up their forces and beef up their armaments. It is also true with the New People’s Army (NPA),” he said.
Casiple said the MILF does not consider the Maute Group as an enemy.
He explained that the MILF is very loose and there are other groups that are friendly to the organization including the Maute, which is also an ally of MILF commander Abdullah Macapaar alias “Commander Bravo.”
“The MILF has no reason to be anti-Maute, and they also don’t have an obligation to the government to report what the group has been up to,” Casiple added.
Since the MILF has not yet signed a peace agreement with the government, it has no obligation to provide information to the government although it can help if its wants to.
WITH JEFFERSON ANTIPORDA