I fully support and agree with President Duterte’s statement that the real enemies of the government and the military in the siege of Marawi City are the members of the IS-Daesh-inspired Abu Sayyaf-Maute group, and not the local Moro community.
The enemies are local extremists and bandits who want to propagate their imported ideology of “destroy and kill” just to achieve their evil goals of creating a new global Muslim caliphate and making the city a province of the Islamic State.
I am a native of Marawi now engaged in a jewelry business with my family in Manila, and I have seen the damage done to the city and the hundreds of thousands of residents displaced by the siege, with the bandits using their homes and buildings as hiding places to fire and snipe at the soldiers hunting them.
I really am very sad to see video footage of the displaced families, the hostage-survivors, the civilians and soldiers killed by the bandits. These extremists should all be held accountable for the gravity of their sins.
Also, I wish and pray that the President’s assurance to allot P20 billion for the rehabilitation and rebuilding of all houses, buildings and other edifices in Marawi will materialize as soon as the city is liberated from the bandits.
The fulfillment of that promise will compel the residents as well as national and local officials to believe in the sincerity of the Duterte administration, and will surely not allow the return of the IS-inspired groups to the city or any other part of Mindanao.
SHAIRA FAHAD R. DIMAPORO, shairadimaporofahad@gmail.com