The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) believes there are no more stragglers in Marawi City as no fighting has taken place in the past weeks.

“That was exactly my question earlier to Col. (Romeo) Brawner (Joint Task Force Ranao Deputy Commander) and he said right now what they see is that the military have neutralized all the stragglers there in Marawi,” said Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP Public Affairs chief.

“There are no more fire fights...There are no enemies seen in the area so what we are now focused on is the clearing, further clearing operation inside the main battle area,” Arevalo added.

“They are stragglers but in so far as we concerned based on our observation if we no longer have enemies, we would like to assume that they all been neutralized,” he noted.

But Arevalo does not rule out the possibility there stragglers who are still hiding somewhere in the city.

“If there are stragglers still left there we would like to ask them because most of the time the stragglers ...do not know that the war is over. So we are hopeful that they already know and they will either turnover their firearms or give up,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS