Second of four parts

MARAWI CITY: The battle against the Daesh-Maute terrorists may have been won by the government, but the war is far from over, Meranao and Muslim sources from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao as well as from Sabah told The Manila Times.

The systematic recruitment of the vulnerable youth and adult population is ongoing, sources claimed.

"Children from indigent families in Mindanao were sold by their own parents to at least one of the Daesh-linked imams from Marawi,” according to a military intelligence officer.

For many of the parents of the estimated 2,000 child soldiers in Marawi, it was very difficult to say no given the lack of economic opportunities and fear of offending powerful persons in the community.

A mother, still in mourning in Marawi City, recounted how she and her husband were approached twice by a local Daesh-linked imam or priest prior to the Marawi attack.

Almost two years ago, she and her husband were given P150,000 in exchange for their then 11-year-old son to become one of the Daesh-Maute child soldiers.

"More people need to ask why, in the first place, would ISIS-Maute fighters deliberately want to destroy Marawi City when it is already an Islamic City? Think about it,” the source said.

The original Daesh-Maute operational plan failed, however, since the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) successfully cordoned Hapilon and Maute within Marawi City before the end of May, before local Daesh commanders, fighters, and mercenaries could unleash a more catastrophic terrorist attack and damage outside the Islamic City.

What Aquino knew

Marawi residents knew about the presence of Daesh-Maute or ISIS Philippines in their city since 2015, and yet nearly everyone kept silent, according to sources.

An intelligence official corroborates this, saying that as early as 2013, during the administration of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, foreign government researchers provided Philippine government officials, political scientists, and national security experts critical information regarding the presence of Filipino jihadist leaders and about 100 Abu Sayyaf Group members in Syria.

Some Abu Sayyaf fighters were even deployed to Syria for training, along with their wives, all of whom were spotted and identified by the foreign researchers.

According to the same intelligence official, Philippine military officers during the previous administration consistently denied reports that at least 100 Filipino jihadists have joined Daesh and swore their oath of allegiance to ISIS.

The Daesh-Maute stockpiling of weapons, high-powered firearms, equipment, food, and medicine, all strategically stored in various locations in the "underground tunnel system” beneath Marawi City, began at least two years ago, the intelligence official said.

Marawi residents never expected that the Daesh-Maute "Islamic State (IS) territory expansion plan” would backfire two years later, and end up destroying several barangay (villages).

Only 20 percent of Marawi destroyed

Majority of local and international mainstream media ―using the power of framed images and videos― have conditioned many people to believe that after five months of war against Daesh-Maute terrorists, practically all of Marawi City had been destroyed.

The fact is, less than 20 percent of the entire land area of Marawi City was destroyed during five months of fighting.

During fieldwork in December, The Manila Times found that collateral damage in terms of land area had affected only 24 out of the 96 barangay in Marawi City.

This means that the Marawi siege destruction was contained by the AFP within less than a fifth of the entire city’s land area.

The rest of Marawi and beyond continues to be fertile ground for terrorist fund-raising and recruitment.

(Next: The anatomy of terrorist financing)

Contact the authors: drei.toledo@www.manilatimes.net and mimi.fabe@www.manilatimes.net