MANILA, Philippines — Two members of the terrorist Dawlah Islamiyah-Maute Group (DI-MG) yielded to authorities on Wednesday (September 1), the military reported.

They were identified as alias Mosab, 19 years old and alias Hodaifa; both hail from the municipality of Piagapo

The two surrendered to Joint Task Group Haribon in Kampo Ranao, Marawi City.

Mosab revealed that he was forced sometime in January, this year, to join the terrorist group. He was involved in sowing atrocities in the province to include numerous firefights against government forces that caused fear and even displaced some families in the hinter areas of Madalum and Piagapo in Lanao del Sur and Munai and Tangcal in Lanao del Norte.

Meanwhile, Hodaifa left the group this year upon “realizing the deceptive intent of the DI-MG of capitalizing on violent extremism as the true Jihad.” He was part of the group that terrorized and attacked Marawi City in 2017.

The two surrenderers brought with them two M-16 rifles with ammunition.

Brig. Gen. Jose Maria Cuerpo II of JTG Haribon, also the commander of the 103rd Infantry (HARIBON) Brigade, assured the safety and well-being of the former insurgents.

Meanwhile, Piagapo Vice Mayor Ali Sumandar urged the remaining DI-MG members to surrender. He also encouraged residents to report to the nearest military unit the presence of the terrorist group in their area.

The Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) on Tuesday said that the government-led rehabilitation of Marawi City following the 2017 siege is now about 75 percent complete.

TFBM chairman Secretary Eduardo del Rosario issued the statement in line with the call of President Rodrigo Duterte for the task force to hasten the rehabilitation efforts in Marawi City during his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 26.

Del Rosario said that with regard to the ongoing horizontal and vertical projects in the Marawi rehabilitation, they are now around 70 to 75 percent accomplished.

Del Rosario, who also heads the Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development, said that just last week, some 170 permanent shelters were awarded to families of internally displaced persons (IDP) previously living along danger zones.

In February, the TFBM awarded 109 housing units to recipients.

The projects were carried out with funding assistance from the Japanese government.

Del Rosario said that by August, they will be turning over 200 permanent housing units from the projects of the National Housing Authority (NHA).

“We are on track to complete all these projects by December of 2021,” he said.

Aside from housing units within Marawi’s most affected area, the government is also developing other projects such as the city jail and the police station. – RRD (with details from Correspondent Weng Fernandez)

The national government’s public infrastructure project in Marawi is at 65% completion, according to the Task Force Bangon Marawi.

Task Force Bangon Marawi Chairperson Sec. Eduardo Del Rosario said the estimated completion of the project will be in December.

He admitted that the task force had experienced difficulty as even the clearing out of debris already took them one year. However, Del Rosario reiterated that they will continue to complete the project.

“Iyan ang accomplishment rate natin 65%, and we are on track with our stated deadline of December of the year na lahat ng ongoing projects ay matatapos natin,” he said.

(That is our accomplishment rate, 65%, and we are on track with our stated deadline of December of the year and that all of our ongoing projects will also be completed.)

“It has to undergo three phases, first phase are the early intervention activities that took us almost one year to give attention to the immediate needs of internally displaced person,” he added.

The budget for the Task Force Bangon Marawi is around P75 to P80 billion. Del Rosario also assured that grants, including the P3 billion given by the government of Japan, underwent auditing by the Commission on Audit to avoid any form of corruption. –AAC (with reports from Dante Amento)