Maranao mayors secure Lake Lanao from Maute terrorists

LANAO DEL SUR --- Maranao mayors are now helping prevent Maute terrorists from launching attacks on state forces in Marawi City from the navigable Lake Lanao.Local officials in towns along Lake Lanao have started tagging passenger watercrafts and those that fishermen use with security marks in support of the government’s on-going operations in Marawi City.Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur, is also located along the 340-square kilometer Lake Lanao.Mayors have also deployed barangay tanods to monitor boats cruising through all four corners of the lake to restrain the movement of Maute terrorists.Captain Jo-ann Petinglay, information staff of the Western Mindanao Command, told this news outfit on Thursday that 29 mayors in Lanao del Sur, which has 39 towns, each assured support to Malacañang’s pacification efforts in Marawi City during a dialogue on Wednesday.The event, held in Marawi City, was jointly presided over by Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, Jr. of Westmincom and Lanao del Sur Vice Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr.The spokesman of the interim provincial crisis management committee, Assemblyman Zia Alonto Adiong of the Regional Assembly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao was also present in the meeting.Local officials from Lumba-Bayabao and Masiu towns had told Galvez during their meeting at the provincial capitol in Marawi City that boats owned by their constituents now have security marks and numbers for easy identification by barangay tanods.Petinglay said the branding of the boats and the profiling of their owners are voluntary initiatives of the mayors.Mayor Benjie Bagul of Balindong town said 126 boats in lakeside villages in his town had been accounted for, now bearing security marks.The mayors have confirmed to Galvez that the remaining Maute terrorists holding out in Marawi City are now low on ammunition and food supplies.Galvez said Thursday that Maranao mayors and provincial officials also agreed on Wednesday to meet weekly to discuss the security issues besetting Marawi City. These mayors and their provincial officials are now openly supporting the government’s peacekeeping activities in Marawi City, Galvez said.Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, director of the Regional Police Office-ARMM, said the recent arrest of Maute terrorists in Lanao del Sur were achieved with the help of mayors and barangay officials.Sindac said the PRO-ARMM is optimistic of more breakthroughs in the government’s fight against the Maute terror group now that mayors are one against the spread of violent religious extremists in Lanao del Sur.