MARAWI CITY - The senators came to this city in search of peace and found a virtual war zone.
The Dimaporo Auditorium of the Mindanao State University (MSU) here was crawling with security men from the Army, the Philippine National Police and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, most of them with high-powered firearms, when the senators arrived for public consultations on the expanded ARMM.
In previous public consultations, there were few armed men inside the conference room but Marawi turned out to be the exception.
Some of the security men from the ARMM had bandoliers; one was even armed with an M-203 grenade launcher. Outside the auditorium, there was a light armored tank ready for any eventuality.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr., chairman of the Senate committee on local government, said there were also heavily armed men during the public consultations in the ARMM provinces of Sulu and Maguindanao, but they were not as conspicuous as in this city.
Sen. Juan Flavier said the strong presence of armed men could be justified because there have been intelligence reports of threats on the lives of the senators conducting the public consultations.
This developed as an alleged Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) member was held for questioning in Iligan City yesterday afternoon after materials for making a homemade bomb was found in his backpack. - With Lino de la Cruz