22 August 2017•Update: 23 August 2017
By Hader Glang
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Students returned to their university studies in Marawi City on Tuesday despite the devastation caused by ongoing fighting.
Just hours before classes opened at the Mindanao State University (MSU) campus, two soldiers were wounded in a gunfight with Maute group terrorists who are still holding out in one part of the city.
Three months of fighting in Marawi, the capital of Lanao del Sur province, has left the city in ruins and the sound of gunshots and explosions still permeate the air.
MSU President Habib Macaayong said lectures had been due to resume at the university on Aug. 7 but had been delayed on the advice of the military.
Around 300 soldiers are guarding the campus perimeter amid fears terrorists may target the university’s students.
“If students choose not to go back, more lives will be doomed in the ashes of war and die in vain,” civil engineering student Mark Beinson Lutcha, 18, told the Minda News website.
“Going back to MSU is the best action to counter terrorism.”
The campus, one of 11 MSU sites across the southern island of Minadanao, is just 5 kilometers (3 miles) from where remaining Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists are holding out against government troops.
Airstrikes
More than 700 people, mostly terrorists, have been killed since the battle erupted on May 23 and more than 200,000 people have been displaced.
Early Tuesday morning, fresh gunfire could be heard from Marantao, a town to the west of the university.
Capt. Jo-Ann Petinglay, the army spokeswoman for Joint Task Force Marawi, said the shooting ended before 7.00 a.m. (2300GMT) but had taken place within 3 km (2 miles) of the campus.
Lt. Gen. Carlito Galvez, head of Western Mindanao Command, said in a statement that Maute terrorists had opened fire on a military base. A terrorist was killed, he added.
DZBB radio reported that the university gates were locked and checkpoints around Marantao were stepped up. Meanwhile, airstrikes continued against the remaining militants in Marawi.
Around 8,000 students currently live at the campus, Macaayong said. Around 600 students and university staff were bussed 24 km (15 miles) under military escort from Iligan City to the MSU campus, the army statement added.
“We will make sure that any attempts to thwart our plans for normalcy of Marawi City will not be successful,” Galvez said.
“With the help of the MSU community and those who desire to build back a better Marawi City, we are sure that we can defeat any terror group from perpetrating their plan.”
MSU is the foremost higher education institute in Minadanao and most of its sites are in areas hit by militancy in the past.
