MARAWI CITY, Lanao del Sur (PIA)--The 103rd Infantry Brigade is continuing its undertakings to fight local terrorist groups (LTGs) and communist terrorist groups (CTGs) sighted in the province of Lanao del Sur.
The brigade’s Deputy Commander Col. Billy Dela Rosa bared that currently, they are still confronting the remnants of Dawlah Islamiya-Maute Group (DI-MG) which can be recalled to be the cause of the eruption of the firefight in the city here in the year 2017.
He noted that such is now in a splinter group and expanding their organization through recruitment which is focusing on the immediate family members of the ones composing the DI, those who are involved in family feuds or ridos, and the minors.
Dela Rosa recalled that before the national and local elections this year, they monitored the DI-MG operating in the 1st district of the province but after the polls, the group accordingly transferred to the province’s 2nd district.
To counter the existence of the violent extremist group in their area of responsibility, Dela Rosa shared that in the days ahead, they will be spearheading a dialogue to iron out some problems on how to neutralize local terrorists by enlightening them about the promising benefits that await them after they are once again under the care of the government.
“This is to convince them to return to the fold of the law as the brigade and our partner police are very willing na tulungan sila na bumalik sa ating gobyerno [to help them to return to the government] so that they could avail of this [Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program] E-CLIP,” he said.
Apart from the LTGs, the 103rd Infantry Brigade disclosed that they are also facing communist terrorist groups that are approaching Lanao del Sur province from the boundaries of Bukidnon province and Iligan City.
Dela Rosa stated that they are going against these threat groups through their organized Task Group Peacemaker which made the situation not alarming.
“Ito iyong naghahabol sa grupo na ito na sometimes, kapag naiipit sila doon sa area ng Iligan and Bukidnon, pumupunta sila dito sa area ng Lanao del Sur [This is one running after the group that sometimes, when struggling in the area of Iligan and Bukidnon, proceeds here in the area of Lanao del Sur]. Nevertheless, this is manageable as far as our security is concern. There is nothing to worry about,” he said.
Dela Rosa further enumerated other successful peace and security interventions led by his troops such as the information education cascading activity with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and Philippine National Police (PNP) which tackled the status of the normalization and peace agreement, the consultation with the MILF people in Camp Bushra based in Butig town for the same topic, and the reiteration of the provision of Anti-Terrorism Law which requires the government employees to divulge information about their relatives who are members of the terrorist organizations. (CRG/PIA-10/Lanao del Sur)
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