「日刊まにら新聞」ウェブ

The military said around six soldiers were placed under investigation for alleged looting in Marawi City.

In a radio interview Wednesday, Col. Romeo Brawner, Joint Task Force Ranao Deputy Commander, said the suspects, which include an officer and about five enlisted personnel, were caught during the first few days of the Marawi siege.

“During the first few days of Marawi siege, we have caught soldiers who were carrying televisions and appliances and according to the investigation they were going to use it with their unit here in Marawi, not for personal,” he said.

“Just the same, our commander ordered them to return these to the house where they took it but they were also investigated for that,” Brawner added.

Brawner said these soldiers allegedly involved in the looting were still under investigation.

“There are no charges against them yet, but then again the investigation is going on because (at) that time we focused on the combat,” he said.

Brawner said jewelries that were turned over to local authorities last Tuesday were recovered and not looted by the soldiers.

“We have one bag of jewelries surrendered by the Scout Rangers. They said these bag of jewelries was left by the Maute when the troops overran their position (in the main battle area),” he said.

“We wanted to correct that because apparently, it shows that the jewelries that we surrendered yesterday was taken by the soldiers. That is not true. We recovered those from the areas that was left by the Maute/ISIS,” Brawner added.

Brawner said government forces also captured " a lot of professional looters" during the siege.

“They are around 22 because during that time the civilians were also evacuating. There were civilians who were left but they are professional looters and we captured them,” he said.

Brawner emphasized that the military does not condone looting so they implement measures to prevent this which includes conducting showdown inspection.

“When they leave we conduct showdown inspection. Their commanders inspect personal things that they have even, unit property. We also have third unit inspector to make sure they will not bring home anything that they do not own,” he said. Robina Asido/DMS