MARAWI CITY – Just as the Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesman was reporting the discovery of eight bodies, all women, near the Mindanao State University campus, another government security team had a similar gristly find: eight more bodies, this time all men, on the side of a portion of the Marawi-Iligan Road.
Their bodies – heads bullet-riddled, with hands and feet tied – were found about 8 am Sunday some six meters in a shallow ravine on the roadside.
Attached to some bodies were cardboard signs on which was written the word “Munafek,” the dialect for “liar” or, according to others, “traitor.”
According to local authorities, they received an alert about 7 a.m that some people had been killed in that area, about 4 kms away from Marawi central where the fiercest battles are being fought between government troops and the Maute Group terrorists who had laid siege to the city since May 23.
Initial assessment by probers said the victims were likely killed at the site where the bodies were found. Blood was still fresh and the bullet shells presumably used on them were found strewn on the ground.
Meanwhile, two women Maranaos working in a rice mill nearby told authorities the men were employees at the mill. The men were part of a group of people stranded by fighting.
The witnesses said the men were apprehended by some 20 Maute Group members at a bridge in Barangay Napindan, and all were told to recite a Muslim prayer.
The eight men were reportedly killed after failing to recite the Muslim prayer, and the rest were allowed to leave.
Some survivors had told authorities that a few Muslims were among those killed alongside Christians.
‘Men were carpenters, couldn’t recite Koran’
Marawi police officer Jamail C Mangadang gave Reuters a slightly different version: the eight men found dead were carpenters who were part of an evacuation convoy stopped by rebels late on Saturday.
Recalling information provided by their manager, Mangadang said the victims were pulled off a truck because they were unable to cite verses of the Koran, the Islamic Holy text.
“We heard gunfire, although I’m not sure if it was the same people who were shot,” he said at the scene.
“Early in the morning, at 08.20, there are civilians, concerned citizens, who said ‘can you verify these dead bodies?’.”
The discovery of the bodies has further raised fears about the safety of residents who remain in the city. As of Sunday, authorities estimated 90 percent of Marawi’s 200,000 population have fled to safety, but thousands more are feared trapped, either in their homes or other hiding places, running out of food and water and anxious that the terrorists might get to them before help can come.
The question raised was: with the police and soldiers having set up checkpoints within and around the city, how could the Maute Group still manage to block these civilians?
Just before the authorities reported the murders of the eight rice mill workers, AFP spokesman Gen. Restituto Padilla had reported that security forces found eight bodies – all women, including children – just 300 meters outside the MSU campus. It was unknown when and why they were killed and how.
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