MARAWI CITY (MindaNews / 31 October) — During the 2017 Marawi Siege, journalists had complained about restrictions imposed by the military on their coverage of the five-month conflict that completely damaged the city’s commercial district.
Eight years after, they are still waiting for answers to those questions.
They said the adage “the first casualty of war is truth” was especially true during the campaign to retake the city from Daesh-inspired militants led by brothers Abdullah and Omar Maute, as they were denied access to the battleground.
“We heard the gunfire and explosions but we were nowhere near the fighting,” photojournalist Fernando Sepe Jr., former deputy editor of ABS-CBN, said.
Sepe said the military had blocked all access to the conflict zone, leaving journalists in a quandary where to get the stories, photos and videos of the fighting.
He said when journalists found a vantage point on top of a building whose owner permitted them to shoot pictures and videos as Airforce planes bombed Marawi, the military closed it down.
Sepe said that as a result, most of the photos and videos of the fighting were supplied by the military.
“In the morning we would be told during the daily press conferences what had taken place, and they would provide journalists with pictures or video images,” he said.
The daily press conferences held at the Lanao del Sur provincial capitol gave the military and the government a venue to control the narrative of the fighting, he said.
“The press lost its role as the eyes and ears of the public,” he said.
Broadcast journalist Ed Lingao said Filipino journalists used to have unlimited access and a front seat view to conflict areas in Mindanao.
He said all the journalists had to do was befriend a local military or police commander to allow them access or let them embed with operating troops.
“Marawi was different. The military was systematic in denying access,” he said.
Zia Alonto Adiong, an assemblyman of the defunct Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao at the time of the siege, said the military and the provincial crisis committee did not keep any information from the journalists during the daily press conferences at the capitol.
Adiong, who served as the daily spokesperson for the crisis committee said military spokespersons like then Col. Romeo Brawner, Deputy Commander and spokesperson of the Joint Task Force Marawi, was not holding back any information either.
Brawner currently serves as Armed Forces Chief of Staff.
“The military denied access for the safety of journalists not to hide information,” Adiong, now Representative of Lanao del Sur First District and House Deputy Majority Leader, said.
He said the fighting was so intense that journalists would certainly be hurt if allowed to enter.
Journalists like Chiara Zembrano, Jamela Alindogan, Carolyn Arguillas and Jes Aznar banded together as a group called “Roque Juan” and demanded to have a meeting with Major General Ramiro Manuel Rey, commander of Task Force Ranao to ask him to relax military restrictions on the media.
In the aftermath of that meeting, Rey led journalists in crossing Baloi Bridge in Barangay Mapandi for the first time in late September 2017. The bridge was recaptured by the military a month before but civilians and journalists were not allowed to cross it.
At that time, the military were on the final push against the militants who were still holding several hostages in the southern part of the city.
Despite that, journalists felt that many questions were left unanswered and still linger eight years after.
For starters, how many civilians were really killed in the fighting? The military said up to 2,000 residents were trapped inside the city and claimed that they were able to rescue 1,000 of them. Journalists said there is no proof for that.
Looting was first reported in the villages of Sarimanok and Basak-Malotlut in September 2017. Residents pointed at the army and police as the culprits. What happened to the investigation? A military commander went as far as allowing civilian monitors to check the baggage of departing soldiers for stolen gold and jewelries.
During the clearing of Marawi after the siege, hundreds of trucks loaded with scrap iron were seen departing to waiting buyers in Iligan City and Cagayan de Oro City.
The government interagency Task Force Bangon Marawi organized by then-President Rodrigo Duterte on June 8, 2017 could not provide answers and could not also provide an accounting of the P2 billion donations from countries like Australia, United States, Japan, China and Thailand. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
