Are we seeing the last gasps of the Maute?

The latest reports coming from the Armed Forces of the Philippines is that Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, may have already abandoned the Maute group that laid siege to Marawi City last May 23. Hmmm, I thought that ISIS leaders are trained to die fighting and holding their ground which they call caliphate? If these reports can be validated and indeed Hapilon has fled Marawi City, then he is not a true ISIS leader and a plain coward!

No doubt that the Maute group's command and control leadership has broken down because no matter how hard you defend your position, especially for snipers, that position gets demolished when Air Force planes bomb your position. This is why you can hear the clamor of Marawi City residents begging the AFP to stop the airstrikes. I would like to believe that those are the people who supported the Maute group and perhaps helped them stockpile guns and ammunition inside their stronghold in Marawi City, which is why this battle has lasted this long!

I have no doubt that the Maute group's plan to turn Marawi City into an ISIS caliphate has crumbled in the hands of our brave AFP soldiers, many of whom have died fighting these terrorists. Perhaps the biggest gain that the AFP achieved in the past few days was the report by Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP Public Affairs chief that Malaysian Mahmud bin Ahmad, the Malaysian financier of the Maute group was killed during the airstrikes. This man was the direct link of the Maute group to ISIS and was their adviser on how to fight the government troops. Reports say that he was buried in a cemetery in Marawi, a report that needs to be validated.

What I found disturbing is that report I read in the Philippine STAR yesterday, which said the military is open to dialog with Islamist militants still entrenched in parts of Marawi to save civilians trapped in the fighting, which has decimated many parts of the once vibrant city. Col. Edgard Arevalo, the chief of the public affairs office of the military, said that talks might lead to the rescue of the hundreds of civilians still in the city.

I find this report a bit confusing. I mean, sure the AFP must do its utmost to protect and rescue civilians still trapped inside Marawi City. But can we really trust the beleaguered Maute terrorists who are now so desperate; they might just start killing those civilians, whom they have been using as human shields? So far, a hastily called 8-hour ceasefire for humanitarian's sake that was called saved some 1,704 civilians.

With Hapilon no longer in Marawi City, what is left of the Maute group's men are those die-hard ISIS who expect to die fighting. With Ramadan over and done with, it is time to resume this fight and through more airstrikes. Bomb these bloodthirsty terrorists into oblivion!

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While what happened to sitting Bien Unido Town Mayor Gisela Bendong-Boniel is one of the biggest crimes ever done, but I never wrote anything about this case simply because we had so many important issues to write about. Yes, I know what allegedly happened to Mayor Boniel supposedly in the hands of her husband, Provincial Board Member Niño Rey Boniel, who is now facing a parricide case.

What caught my attention was a news report that said that Mayor Boniel was still alive and had all the reasons to hide because she was deep in debt. Of course this report was taken from the counter-affidavit of Board Member Boniel because after weeks of searching for her body, the searchers came out empty-handed. Hence the defense was quick to come up with this story because of their belief that if there is no "corpus delicti" then there is no case.

But to prove that Mayor Gisela is alive, but in reality her body is still underwater, is perhaps the most difficult thing to do in court. Just because she was heavily in debt, doesn't prove that she is in hiding and feigned her own death. At this point, I still believe that Mayor Gisela was killed and her body thrown into the sea unless the defense lawyers can personally produce her living body.

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