Tranquility now felt in birthplace of Maute terror cell

LANAO DEL SUR --- The conflict-torn birthplace of the Maute terror group is bouncing back, now off limits to militants whose religious experiment ruined Meranao communities.Scenic spots in the municipality of Butig, hometown of the founders of the Maute terror group --- the slain siblings Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute --- are now being made eco-tourism sites by local and provincial officials.Vice Gov. Haroun Al-Rashid Lucman of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said Tuesday he himself was amazed with how the local government unit of Butig is coping up with the devastation wrought by the Maute group that first emerged in the municipality in 2014.It was in Butig, a hinterland town in the first district of Lanao del Sur, where the brothers Omarkhayam and Abdullah Maute established what began then as the Dawlah Islamiya, patterned from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.Authorities later named the terror cell the Maute group, apparently for being led by the two Mautes and their five younger siblings.They all perished one after another during their five-month siege of Marawi City in 2017. Now the entire Butig town is being protected jointly by the police, the military and the noble Meranao clans led by Mayor Dimnatang Pansar, Lucman said.Pansar is presiding chairperson of the Butig municipal peace and order council.Butig is a historic, centuries-old settlement, a bastion of the Meranao nobility.For contemporary Meranao historians, those who belong to the 15 royal houses in Lanao del Sur could all be descendants of the Butig royal ancestry. Maybe it was because of that historical point that the Maute first tried to put dominion over Butig, but failed. That’s a speculation but possibly has credence, said Lucman.Lucman is a Meranao datu, a scion of a noble clan in Lanao del Sur’s Unayan area that fought the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese during World War II.Butig is now being guarded from misguided Islamic militants by leaders of local noble Meranao clans and provincial officials led by Gov. Soraya Bedjoria Alonto-Adiong, according to Lucman.The security initiative is led by the municipal mayor, supported by the Western Mindanao Command, the Police Regional Office-ARMM and the Lanao del Sur provincial governmentA battalion-size Army contingent now guards strategic areas in Butig, where the Maute ran a shadow government that implemented a Taliban-style justice system that local folk detested for being barbaric and primitive.Lt. Gen. Arnel Dela Vega of WestMinCom said Tuesday credit for the improving situation in Butig should go to the office of its mayor, Pansar, a lawyer by profession, and to the provincial government of Lanao del Sur. The military cannot quell violent religious extremism without the help of local officials in affected areas and the police. Teamwork is vital here. In areas where people are working together, militants are losing ground, Dela Vega said.Dela Vega cited as example the province of Basilan, where more than 200 members of the dreaded Abu Sayyaf surrendered in the past 24 months through diplomatic interventions by the inter-agency ARMM regional peace and order council.The May 23 to October 16, 2017 siege of Marawi City was instigated by the Maute terror cell and a group of Abu Sayyaf militants led by Isnilon Hapilon.Hapilon was also killed by soldiers who cleared Marawi City from terrorists, whose religious adventurism resulted in the deaths of no fewer than a thousand people, dislocated some 300,000 people and left dozens of centuries-old, historic Meranao enclaves there in ruins. As long as noble Meranao clans are united against religious extremists, they can never comeback to sow terror again, Lucman said.Lucman said the Meranaos are proud people never conquered by the Spaniards, the Americans and the Japanese during the World War 2. That is a rosy history that should inspire us to stand as one against misguided Islamic militancy, he said.