Marawi siege perceived as affront to Maranao community honor

LANAO DEL SUR --- Many residents of Marawi City and their leaders remembered May 23, 2017 as the day militants stepped on their maratabat as a community never conquered by invaders in the past.The term maratabat means pride and honor in the local dialect, akin to Maranao family and community stature and valued as next to their religion, Islam.Some leaders blame disunity among them, their datus and sultans as the factor that emboldened the Dawlah Islamiya, most known as the Maute terror group, to embark on a religious adventurism that would result in the deaths of about a thousand, among them soldiers and policemen, and dislocate more than 200,000 innocent residents of Marawi City.The May 23, 2017 siege of Marawi City by Islamic State-inspired militants led by Maranao siblings Omar and Abdullah Maute and the Basilan-born Isnilon Hapilon, the figurehead of the Abu Sayyaf in the island province, lasted for five months and left dozens of centuries-old tribal enclaves in ruins. That was to become a very ugly blot on the history of the Maranao people who stood bravely against the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese forces during the second world war, lamented a scion of a noble clan, Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman,regional vice governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.Lucman, who belong to the Moro nobility in the second district of Lanao del Sur, said Wednesday the May 23, 2017 attack on Marawi City by Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists was a serious affront to the maratabat of their proud Maranao community.He said the incident was a consequence of their failure to unite and nip the group from its bud while still emerging as a small band of misguided Islamic militants in Butig town in Lanao del Sur. Our consolation, for now, is that many Maranao datus and sultans have reunited against violent religious extremists as an aftermath of that conflict, Lucman said.There were gunfights in recent months between Maute stragglers and armed followers of noble clans in the second district of Lanao del Sur, sparked by attempts to intrude into barangays that comprise their centuries-old royal principalities. Never again will they let these terrorists step on their clan pride and honor, Lucman said Wednesday.Maranaos in Marawi City, capital of Lanao del Sur, commemorated the first anniversary of the deadly five-month conflict Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists instigated in very somber mood.Internally displaced people in tent enclaves in safer spots in Marawi City have many stories purporting the adverse impact to their lives of the May 23 to October 16, 2017 hostilities in their barangays. Until now we could not comprehend why a group of Maranaos destroyed the historic landmark of the Maranao homeland, Marawi City, by instigating trouble right in the area, said Mansur Linang, whose house was flattened by bombs.Many IDPs had said they are grateful to public officials in Marawi City, in Lanao del Sur province and to the ARMM regional government for the continuing joint humanitarian interventions being extended to them.The Humanitarian Emergency Assistance and Response Team of ARMM brought more than 50 tons of relief supplies to Marawi City for an outreach mission for IDPs on Wednesday.ARMM Gov. Mujiv Hataman promised on Wednesday to sustain their relief operations, along with the offices of Lanao del Sur Gov. Soraya Alonto-Adiong and Marawi City Major Majul Gandamra, for Maranao and non-Maranao IDPs. It has been a year since Marawi City got ravaged as a result of acts of terror. This historic city had been reduced to rubble as a result of the worst conflict to hit the Moro homeland in contemporary time, Hataman said.He said the Regional Police Office-ARMM will continue to help units of the Western Mindanao Command guard Marawi City from terrorists driven away by state security forces last year. We are confident they cannot return anymore because of strong multi-sectoral security cooperation now among local government units, the police and the military, Hataman said.Hataman said he is thankful to WestMinCom for its continuing civil-military activities intended to hasten the restoration of normalcy in Marawi City.He said the ARMM government is focused on the normalization of operation of schools in conflict-stricken areas in Marawi City by June.Hataman said his regional education secretary, lawyer Rasol Mitmug, Jr, is in the forefront of efforts to address the concern. Our education officials in Marawi City are working on that now, he said.Hataman said personnel of the Department of Education in Marawi City are also preparing makeshift learning centers now as part of their contingencies meant to ensure the continuity of studies of conflict-affected school children.