"The enemy deliberately chose to retreat to the commercial area of the city so they can sustain themselves and their ammunition, so they could forage from there. As to ammunition, as we have mentioned before, this rebellious activity turns out to have been well-planned, and adequate preparations had been made," he said.
"They had also stocked up on ammunition they got from the city jail and armories that they ransacked. They have also recovered government items they foraged from other areas of the city...it is definite, however, that they will not be able to sustain it for long," Abella added.
News report cited Task Force Marawi spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera's statement saying that the fighters seemed to have using only what's left from their ammunition supply.
June 2 was the deadline eyed by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana to entirely redeem the conflict-stricken city but the military missed that the terrorists are scattered in different parts of the city.
Meanwhile, six days after President Duterte's "alone time" he madea public appearance at Butuan City on Saturday as he speaks to the Army’s 401st Brigade.
The President put the blame on the "soft policy" of the government regarding the attacks of the Islamic fighters.
"It was not a question of failure on the part of the government. It’s that we have adopted a soft policy towards the rebels," Duterte said. "We took it really for granted. We all know that it’s a big issue but we ignored it because we never knew at that time who are the enemies really are," he added.
Duterte's speech came after several other government officials, the Supreme Court pinned the blame on the military troops' failure of intelligence to perceive that the local terrorist group have infiltrated within the Marawi City.
During oral arguments last week, SC Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo blamed the government troops for their alleged 'failure of intelligence' aout the Maute group's attack and pointed out that militants seemed to be well-prepared.
As of June 15, death toll went up to 310 (26 civilians, 225 militants and 59 government troops).
"Now, it appeared that Maute [members] were bringing the firearms surreptitiously and we were unable to determine how many ammunitions and guns they have," Duterte stated.
"It was not a failure of intelligence because if they [government forces] see armed men claiming to be MI[LF], MN[LF], the standing order is not to touch them because it might have been resolved through peace negotiations." he added.
The president also gave a warning to the government troops about the "danger" these Maute and ISIS can do to the Philippines.
"The fighting is going on but of course, it’s winding up, but at the cost also of many soldiers also. And that is the danger of Maute and Isis. Be vigilant. It’s hard to fight a person who wants to die," he said.
"They have so corrupted the name of God in the form of religion to kill many innocent persons and to destroy for nothing," the President added.
Source: Sunstar, GMA
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