Heroes

According to one eyewitness account, people spilled out to the streets when they saw trucks and buses filled with soldiers moving up the road from Marawi to Cagayan de Oro. The exhausted soldiers were greeted with cheers and applause.

The spontaneous response from civilians must have been truly heartwarming for the troops. The last time I saw an adoring crowd mobbing soldiers like they were rock stars was during the Edsa Revolution. Many of the soldiers who valiantly fought to recover Marawi were not even born then.

The brave soldiers who fought in Marawi deserve all the accolades we are willing to give. They fought for the Republic. They battled a hardened band of terrorists without sufficient training and the equipment required to properly conduct urban warfare.

While the soldiers battled in Marawi, their effort was undermined by those enslaved by some obsolete version of political correctness. The Commission on Human Rights wanted to investigate them for “abuses.” The AFP was criticized for the destruction to property that was unavoidable in this sort of warfare.

When the President declared the besieged city liberated, groups like Bayan Muna called it a hoax. The leftists could not imagine that our troops could win a battle and do so honorably.

To be fair, the AFP took every precaution to conduct this battle correctly. Saving the hostages, taken by the terrorists to be used as human shields, was always first priority. The mosques were respected and spared the bombing even as they were used as command and control centers by the terrorist force.

Taking into account cultural sensibilities, the AFP deployed female soldiers to the checkpoints to pat down the women. The soldiers were instructed to treat the local population with respect. Freed hostages were debriefed carefully and civilly.

Our soldiers paid with their lives to do things correctly. They engaged an enemy that used human shields. Yet they were under instruction not to fire at the human shields even if it meant sparing an enemy fighter.

Given the intensity of the fighting, hostage casualties were surprisingly low. Even as the fighting was winding down, the troops were still rescuing hostages.

As this is being written, the latest report estimated the ISIS “stragglers” to number no more than 30, all of them presumably hungry and low on ammunition. They were trapped in a single building with no hope of escape. Even at that late stage, our troops left avenues open for the wives of terrorists who were in the scene of battle to step out and surrender.

War is always brutal. Yet from every indication, the AFP tried to wage this with as much civility as possible. The institution should be praised for that.

Although lacking in the proper equipment, the AFP was as professional as any military organization could be. They kept the public abreast of the situation with clear and prompt briefings. If the battle took this long, it was because the AFP tried to keep collateral damage low.

When troops died from friendly fire, there was no effort to cover up the tragic incidents. As the fighting began to wind down, military spokesmen spoke frankly of the tactical mistakes committed and the adjustments necessary.

For instance, our troops tried using mortars early in this battle and then realized these were useless against the thick concrete walls of the structures in the city center. These structures were built strong precisely to protect their residents from gunfights. They were used to full advantage by the terrorists who could only be dislodged by artillery and aerial bombardment.

Kibitzers, bleeding hearts and the usual roll of critics, early in the battle to recover Marawi, called on government forces to stop the bombings. If their call were heeded, the war would go on forever. They knew nothing of the dictates of the situation on the ground. They were merely trying to score political points in the midst of a serious battle.

There are a hundred stories of heroism and exceptional courage that need to be told and retold. There is the one about the Scout Ranger captain killed because he returned to rescue his trapped comrades. There is the sergeant, finding himself hopelessly surrounded by the terrorists, called for artillery fire right at his position. Then there are the innumerable wounded soldiers who returned to the frontline as soon as they could walk.

The elite Scout Rangers were among the first thrown into the battle. They are the first to be removed after the President declared the city liberated. After a brief period of rest and recuperation, they return to intensive training to hone their skills in urban warfare.

Our best fighting units are traditionally trained in jungle warfare. Now they have to train and acquire the equipment for urban warfare. We need more than a few hundred more sniper rifles. We need thermal imaging equipment, night vision tools and all the assorted technologies for fighting from one building to the next.

Urban warfare is close quarter engagement. It requires shorter assault rifles, small explosives to blast through walls, intense drone surveillance of the enemy. Our armored vehicles proved vulnerable to rocket launched grenades and improvised explosive devices. They will have to be redesigned.

There are a thousand lessons learned from the Marawi engagement. Our troops will no doubt take all of them into account.

For the moment, however, we need to celebrate the heroism of our troops. No one fled from the fighting and none panicked under heavy fire.

We have a better army than we might have estimated.