Inmate who got out and joined Maute back behind bars

LANAO DEL SUR — Authorities arrested one of the inmates from Lanao del Sur provincial jail that Maute terrorists set free during the siege of Marawi City on May 23.

Arno Bationg, detained two years before for various criminal offenses, was cornered in Barangay Tubok in Malabang by combined personnel of the Lanao del Sur provincial police and the Army's 6th Infantry Battalion.

Officials of the Police Regional Office-Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said on Friday that Bationg is now being probed over allegations that he joined the terrorists who occupied Marawi City for five months after they sprung him and many others from detention.

The Lanao del Sur provincial jail is located in Marawi City.

Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen stormed the facility on May 23, disarmed guards and opened detention cells for inmates to escape.

In an initial statement Friday, the Army's 6th IB based in Barangay Matling in Malabang said the assertions of confidential informants on Bationg's alleged involvement in subsequent attacks in Marawi City was bolstered by a healing wound in his right leg.

Police intelligence agents in Marawi City said Maranaw informants have relayed to them that Bationg indeed joined in the deadly forays by Maute and Abu Sayyaf gunmen in Marawi City that began on May 23 and lasted until October 23.

The sources said Bationg fled from Marawi City when he was injured in an encounter with soldiers three weeks before President Rodrigo Duterte declared its liberation from terrorists last month.

“Let's give investigators enough time to validate that,” said Chief Supt. Graciano Mijares, director of PRO-ARMM.

Mijares said he is thankful to vigilant Maranaw community elders and local officials who provided information on the location of Bationg in Malabang, a seaside town in the second district of Lanao del Sur.