MSU declared ‘safe’ amid manhunt for bombers

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said it is now safe for residents and students of the Mindanao State University in Marawi City to return to the area after the bombing incident on Sunday.

"Your security forces, both the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are working hard to make sure that perpetrators of this terroristic attack will be brought to justice. We will run after them and we will try to neutralize this group so that they cannot do the same thing—to harm innocent civilians," Brawner said in a press conference at the headquarters of the Philippine Army's 103rd Infantry Brigade in Marawi City on Monday

Amid the security developments in the area, Brawner said the students can now go back safely to MSU and locals can also "continue with their normal activities" as he assured them that the military and police "won't let a repeat the incident."

"Sa ating mga kababayan, gusto po naming ipaabot sa inyo that hindi po dapat kayo mabahala, please continue on with your normal activities pati estudyante sa MSU, they can go back to MSU because they can be assured of their safety nandyan po ang kasundaluhan natin at kapulisan to ensure that this type of incident will not happen again, especially in MSU," he added.

Meanwhile, AFP Western Mindanao Command chief Lt.Gen William Gonzales said they are now conducting a "massive manhunt" operations against the attackers who bombed a Catholic Mass that killed four people in the area.

"We will use all our resources and capability to find them as soon as possible, as we speak there's an ongoing massive operation to hunt these terrorist groups or suspected perpetrators of the bombing," Gonzales said.

"Aside from just to mitigate the effect of bombing particularly in MSU and to the people there who are affected there the victims, we augmented one company of infantry of military just to secure the area," he added.

PNP Bangsamoro regional chief , BGen. Allan Nobleza said they already placed all policemen under heightened and full alert status.

"It means that additional policemen will be seen on the streets doing the police visibility, it means an intensified conduct of the checkpoint ops, and other anti-criminality ops, aside from that we augmented this morning one company coming from the regional mobile force battalion to MSU," he said.

Nobleza said they are also verifying reports about the number of local terrorist groups "operating not only in Lanao but in the entire Bangsamoro region."