Defeated terrorists in Marawi pose wider threat to S-E Asia

ALTHOUGH it has slipped from news headlines, the conflict in the southern Philippine city of Marawi on the island of Mindanao wages on. Several hundred terrorists led by the Maute brothers and the Abu Sayyaf managed to seize the city in May. Despite some initial successes, Philippine security forces remain engaged in clashes with a small group of terrorists who remain entrenched in the town's centre.

Aside from the humanitarian crisis of tens of thousands of refugees forced to flee Marawi, the capital city of Lanao del Sur province (population 200,000) has been effectively destroyed by government aircraft in an effort to recapture it. This has caused major structural damage, with reconstruction costs estimated at US$1 billion.

While it is true that the conditions around the seizure of Marawi were unique in terms of its scale and cross-tribal alliances (the Maute brothers are local Maranaos while Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon is an ethnic Yakan from Basilan province), it was not the first attempt by militants on the periphery to attempt a move into the heartland of Mindanao for "strategic depth" and access to greater resources.