HUMAN rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) released Friday a report accusing government troops in Marawi City of violations of the international humanitarian law.
In its report titled "The Battle of Marawi: Death and Destruction in the Philippines," AI said security forces committed extrajudicial killings, illegal detention, looting, and other violence during the five-month battle in Marawi.
The military was quick to deny the allegations.
Major General Restituto Padilla, AFP spokesperson, said that to date, they have not received formal complaints against any government troops who purportedly committed violations during the five-month battle in Marawi.
Padilla also quoted AFP chief-of-staff General Rey Leonardo Guerrero that the military's actions during the Marawi crisis "were guided by the rules of conflict, which provides for the necessity and proportionality in the use of force."
He was also confident that the troops "respect and follow all the provisions under international humanitarian law and laws of conflict."
"I want to remind everyone that what had been said and found in the report were currently allegations. You have seen the commitment or focus of our soldiers and the armed forces to uphold human rights in that area and the rest of Mindanao while martial law is being implemented," the military spokesman told Palace reporters.
"If these are allegations, they will remain allegations unless there are concrete and formal report that come our way and we will act on it," he added.
The AI report stressed the need to look into the soldiers' alleged violations of international human law.
"Philippine government forces violated the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment of people in their custody. These violations were often carried out against civilians who were escaping from Marawi City and were seeking protection of the military," the report said.
"Members of the armed forces detained numerous people and accused them, without evidence, of being militants. Detainees were allegedly then subjected to various forms of ill-treatment, including sustained beatings and threats of execution," it added.
Padilla, on the other hand, urged the public to remember the Marawi soldiers' efforts to save the lives of the civilians by setting aside their primary needs.
"May I just highlight that the armed forces addressed so many challenges in the main battle area during the conflict. And may I highlight that there were 1,780 civilians who were rescued by our efforts," Padilla said.
"The proportionality by which we used forces was in consideration of all the challenges that we face, which is one, the safety of the civilians who may be trapped in the area, that's primordial; the rescue of the civilians who were held hostage, second; and only third is the safety of our own troops who were in the main battle area addressing these armed groups," he added.
Fighting broke out between government troops and militants inspired by global terror group Islamic State in Marawi on May 23, after a government raid failed to arrest militant leader Isnilon Hapilon.
The battle lasted five months, displacing Marawi residents and destroying properties.
The conflict led to the killing of 920 Islamist extremists, 165 government troops, and 47 civilians. Some 1,780 hostages were rescued.
Defense officials terminated the war on October 23, exactly five months after it erupted and less than a week after President Rodrigo Duterte declared the liberation of Marawi from terrorists. (SunStar Philippines)