According to Joint Task Force Marawi spokesperson Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera, military first saw drones during the first week of the siege in Marawi City.
"During the first two weeks ng ating [skirmishes], mayroon tayong mga nakita na gumagamit din yung kalaban ng drone. Part ito ng surveillance intelligence [ng Maute group]," Herrera said.
Reportedly, frontline soldiers have been complaining about the fould smell of the Maute group members' dead bodies decomposing and there were stray dogs feasting on the cadavers.
The nearly-a-month siege in Marawi began when the government soldiers raided an apartment which was believed to be Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon.
Due to the atrocities caused by the battle betweent the local terrorist and the government troops, President Rodrigo Duterte proclaimed martial law while in his trip in Russia, the announcement was given through Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella.
As soon as the news about the clashes in Marawi City broke, President Duterte immediately returned to the Philippines and cut his trip short, which his Russian counterpart understood.
During the siege, the military had imposed their own deadlines of when will the battle, however, they have also repeatedly missed all of them.
The battle became harder to end because the local terrorists are using hostages as shields against the government forces.
However, the military claimed that the forces of the Maute terrorists have weakened, they were running out of ammunitions.
"We also take cognizance that enemy resistance continues to dwindle and enemy-held areas continues to grow smaller as the troops advance," Spokespeson Abella said in a radio interview.
"However there are compounding developments like the use of civilians as human shields and mosques as staging areas and safe havens," he added.
Because of the indefinity of the situation, they stated that they will no longer impose any deadline but will focus only in wiping out all of the Maute terrorists.
"As far as the Palace is concerned, the Executive branch wishes for all of this to end as soon as possible. However, the bottom line still is martial law is public safety, public safety as mandated by the Constitution," he answered when asked if martial law will soon be lifted.
"Right now, as mentioned earlier, compounding developments continue…Therefore, the schedule for the lifting of martial law is whether or not it is already totally, completely guaranteed or sufficiently guaranteed for the safety of the general public or not," he added.
"We won’t give a timeline for that. Our indicator is whether the public is already safe," Abella said.
Death toll as of Sunday, the Maute group sides has a total of 242 members have been killed for the past 26 days of the clashes.
As of Saturday, 6 PM, Col. Edgard Arevalo, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) public affairs chief said that the total number of firearms recovered from the Maute's is 243 firearms.
However, 26 civilians have been killed while 59 from the government troops.
A total of 1,636 rescued civilians by the government and LGU.
Moreover, Abella also stated that "enemy resistance continues to dwindle and enemy held areas continues to get smaller as troops advance". The military will continue to strike in known hideouts of the terrorist and will exclude mosques from their target lists.
Col. Arevalo staid that the military is in preparation for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Marawi City.
Source: Philstar,GMA
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