Thread: Philippines President Duterte declares martial law on Mindanao island

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Manases Carpio and Paolo Duterte grilled in drug case
President's son Paolo Duterte and son-in-law Manases Carpio reject allegations of their involvement in drug shipment.

Manases Carpio and Paolo Duterte grilled in drug case | Philippines News | Al Jazeera

Maute militants’ command centre in Marawi City captured by government troops


Priest, teacher rescued


The military claimed on Sunday to have captured the command center of the Islamic State-linked Maute Group following ferocious battles and air strikes.


Presidential Peace Process Adviser Jesus Dureza also announced that Fr. Teresito “Chito” Suganob, who was taken hostage by the Maute in May, was rescued on Saturday along with a teacher.


Security forces have engaged the Maute terrorists in ferocious street-to-street combat in a deadly operation that began Saturday against a mosque and another building.


“This enormous (military) gain further weakened the terrorist group by denying them their erstwhile command and control hub,” Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año said in a statement.



EMPTY CITY Photo above, taken on September 16, 2017, shows smoke billowing from buildings and residential areas of Marawi as fighting between government troops and Muslim militants continue. AFP PHOTO



“As follow up and clearing operations continue, we expect the enemy to yield more previously occupied positions, but not without a fight,” he said. “We are ready for that.”


Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of the task force battling the militants, said the military had encountered some of the heaviest resistance in recovering the mosque.


Its capture may be a sign that the prolonged fighting with the Maute militant group, whose leaders have pledged allegiance to IS, may be nearing a conclusion, he said.


“We believe we are close to the end. The area where the Maute terrorist group can move is shrinking. We noticed that their resistance is weakening,” Brawner said.


“They are retreating while we are assaulting but in the process of doing so, we are encountering many improvised explosive devices so we cannot just advance. We have to be very careful,” he said.


One soldier was killed and seven others were wounded in the battle.


Brawner said they had hoped to rescue numerous civilian hostages when they captured the mosque but they found no one.


Brawner said the ringleaders of the siege are still believed to be inside Marawi, adding that the military was determined to hunt them down.


“We do not want this to happen again in any other city in the Philippines,” he said.




Rescued


Suganob and Lordbin Noblesa Acopio, a teacher from Dansalan College, were rescued after troops regained Bato Mosque, one of the grand mosques in Marawi, Dureza said.


Dureza said the priest was rescued at about 11 p.m. on Saturday.



Fr. Teresito “Chito” Suganob


Military officials refused to give details on Suganob’s rescue, saying operations continue in Marawi.


Malacañang also imposed a news blackout on the Marawi siege.


Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said the Palace will provide information on the war in Marawi City “as soon as conditions on the ground allows.”


“As per guidance from the Armed Forces of the Philippines, we [will]refrain from making comments on the latest developments in the main battle area of Marawi at this time as ongoing operations may be jeopardized, as well as the lives of the remaining hostages, or soldiers in the frontlines,” Abella said.


A source however said in a report relayed to select reporters that Suganob, 51, and Acopio, 29, were taken to the Tactical Command Post after they were rescued.




Empty city


In Marawi, gunfire could still be heard ringing out in the distance as troops backed by armored vehicles, pressed towards militant positions.


The rubble-strewn streets were practically empty except for scores of heavily armed soldiers securing the area. Philippine aircraft and an American P-3 Orion spy plane flew above the city.


Hundreds of armed extremists flying the black flag of the Islamic State movement in the Middle East occupied Marawi, the Islamic capital of the mainly Catholic Philippines, on May 23.


The government said 666 militants, at least 147 government troops and 47 civilians have since been killed in the battle, which has forced thousands to flee their homes.


Brawner said the ringleaders of the siege are still believed to be inside Marawi, adding that the military was determined to hunt them down.


Troops seize Maute command center - The Manila Times Online

Originally Posted by misskit

666 militants

number of the beast

Strange bedfellows in Philippine-Islamic State fight

The rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front, for decades a thorn in Manila's side, has joined state forces to stop the spread of IS-linked extremism despite an incomplete peace deal



he Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a decades-old rebel group recently subdued by a Philippine government peace agreement, is back on the war path – only this time against fellow Muslim militants rather than its traditional state armed forces adversary.


The on-off battle, now quietly entering its second month, threatens to emerge as the next Philippine front in IS’ jihadist bid to gain a permanent autonomous foothold on the southern island of Mindanao, long a hotbed of insurgent and criminal activity.


The IS-aligned, foreign fighter-backed Maute Group’s four-month-old siege of the southern city of Marawi has drastically and suddenly changed the country’s security landscape, as Mindanao emerges as a magnet for foreign jihadists from neighboring regional and Middle Eastern nations.


The IS-sponsored death and destruction at Marawi, however, has sparked a backlash among local Muslim communities who fear the armed conflict could spread. The Marawi siege has laid waste to one of the Philippines’ most important Muslim cities, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.


MILF is fast emerging as a local counterforce to that threat, an ironic voice of moderation after plunging the region into decades of debilitating civil war. “Violent extremism is not acceptable in Islam,” Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s peace implementing panel chair, said in a recent statement.


In August, the MILF dusted off its rusting guns to launch an offensive against the IS-aligned Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the little-known Jamaatul Muhajiren Wal-Ansar in Mindanao’s violence-prone Maguindanao province, the MILF’s strategic hub located about four hours away from Marawi. The fighting has been concentrated mostly in remote villages in the province’s District 2.


The BIFF splintered off from MILF in 2010 in opposition to the latter’s peace overtures with the government and later declared its loyalty to IS. The Jamaatul Muhajiren Wal-Ansar (JMWA) is a new Musilim militant group that cut away from the BIFF. The military claims that both IS-linked groups combined have a mere 150 fighters.


Military reports claim that at least seven MILF fighters and about three dozen IS-aligned group militants have been killed in recent fighting, the latest skirmish occurring on September 17. The MILF has claimed the JMWA had encroached on its controlled territory and spread a false interpretation of Islam.


It’s not altogether clear if the MILF’s motivations for launching the fight are driven more by political, religious, tactical or personal imperatives. While certain MILF members have known ties to the IS-linked Maute Group, including through marriage, MILF leaders have been consistently critical of the Maute Group’s IS-inspired scorched earth tactics.


Under its 2014 peace agreement with the government, signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a new “Bangsamoro” area of Muslim self-rule will be established in part of the southern Philippines. Since MILF laid down its arms, other Muslim rebel groups, including Maute and Abu Sayyaf, have gained in strength.


Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesperson for the Philippine Armed Forces’ 6th Infantry Division that has security jurisdiction in Maguindanao, told Asia Times that government troops are not actually fighting alongside MILF fighters on the ground.


“The military has been providing the MILF rebels with aerial and artillery fire support,” he said. “Our troops are stationed away from the MILF rebels who are battling the IS-inspired groups. We don’t want to give the terrorists room to escape.”


Encinas lauded the MILF for neutralizing IS groups lodged in Maguindanao, a historically tumultuous area that has been on high alert for possible spillover effects from the Marawi fighting. President Rodrigo Duterte has placed all of Mindanao under martial law to guard against the spread of extremist-driven instability.


Encinas claimed the joint government-MILF operations have mitigated the risk of a Marawi-like scenario erupting elsewhere in Mindanao, a threat he characterized as increasingly “remote.” Security experts, however, believe the risk of IS militant extremism spreading is still clear and present in light of the terror group’s stated aim of establishing a wilayah, or province, in the region.


“The threat is very serious because pro-Islamic State groups in the Philippines have the intention to wreak havoc on behalf of the Islamic State and have developed strong capabilities to mount terror attacks, including suicide terrorism and vehicular terrorism,” Rommel Banlaoi, chair of the Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told Asia Times.


The Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, an independent think tank, said in a recent report that four Philippine militant groups have established clear links with IS militants in Asia, namely the Abu Sayyaf Group, Maute Group, the BIFF and the Ansar Khilafah Philippines.


The report cited the September 2, 2016, night market bombing in Davao City, Duterte’s hometown, that killed 14 people and wounded over 60 others as evidence of the militant groups’ violent, destabilizing designs for the region.


“It means that more deadly violence in the Philippines involving alliances of pro-Islamic State groups is a matter of when, not if. It may also increase the possibility of cross-border extremist operations,” the report said.


Banlaoi notes that violent religious extremism is now a cross-border problem that Manila must fight with the help of different stakeholders, even with strange bedfellows like the MILF, an ethnic Moro group that has long fought for autonomy though a so-called Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.


MILF peace panel chair Iqbal stresses that the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and the full implementation of its autonomy-granting peace agreement “are examples of concrete steps that can provide long-term solutions against violent religious extremism.”


The BBL, however, was not among the 28 legislative priority bills approved by parliament in August, with Malacanang later insisting it remains a high policy priority of Duterte’s administration after the MILF decried its exclusion.


On September 21, the 45th anniversary of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of martial law, a nearly nine-year period attended by massive state-sponsored abuses, Duterte visited Marawi for the fifth time amid demonstrations against his lethal drug war and calls to lift martial law.


Duterte told troops amid the latest military push to fully recapture Marawi that martial law in Mindanao “would be lifted after Marawi is liberated” from the Maute Group, which he claimed was also involved in the illegal drug trade. But its unclear how many militants have slipped away from Marawi and now lay in wait for a next urban warfare target.





Strange bedfellows in Philippine-Islamic State fight | Asia Times

Strange bedfellows in Philippine-Islamic State fight

The rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front, for decades a thorn in Manila's side, has joined state forces to stop the spread of IS-linked extremism despite an incomplete peace deal



he Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), a decades-old rebel group recently subdued by a Philippine government peace agreement, is back on the war path – only this time against fellow Muslim militants rather than its traditional state armed forces adversary.


The on-off battle, now quietly entering its second month, threatens to emerge as the next Philippine front in IS’ jihadist bid to gain a permanent autonomous foothold on the southern island of Mindanao, long a hotbed of insurgent and criminal activity.


The IS-aligned, foreign fighter-backed Maute Group’s four-month-old siege of the southern city of Marawi has drastically and suddenly changed the country’s security landscape, as Mindanao emerges as a magnet for foreign jihadists from neighboring regional and Middle Eastern nations.


The IS-sponsored death and destruction at Marawi, however, has sparked a backlash among local Muslim communities who fear the armed conflict could spread. The Marawi siege has laid waste to one of the Philippines’ most important Muslim cities, displacing hundreds of thousands of residents.


MILF is fast emerging as a local counterforce to that threat, an ironic voice of moderation after plunging the region into decades of debilitating civil war. “Violent extremism is not acceptable in Islam,” Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s peace implementing panel chair, said in a recent statement.


In August, the MILF dusted off its rusting guns to launch an offensive against the IS-aligned Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the little-known Jamaatul Muhajiren Wal-Ansar in Mindanao’s violence-prone Maguindanao province, the MILF’s strategic hub located about four hours away from Marawi. The fighting has been concentrated mostly in remote villages in the province’s District 2.


The BIFF splintered off from MILF in 2010 in opposition to the latter’s peace overtures with the government and later declared its loyalty to IS. The Jamaatul Muhajiren Wal-Ansar (JMWA) is a new Musilim militant group that cut away from the BIFF. The military claims that both IS-linked groups combined have a mere 150 fighters.


Military reports claim that at least seven MILF fighters and about three dozen IS-aligned group militants have been killed in recent fighting, the latest skirmish occurring on September 17. The MILF has claimed the JMWA had encroached on its controlled territory and spread a false interpretation of Islam.


It’s not altogether clear if the MILF’s motivations for launching the fight are driven more by political, religious, tactical or personal imperatives. While certain MILF members have known ties to the IS-linked Maute Group, including through marriage, MILF leaders have been consistently critical of the Maute Group’s IS-inspired scorched earth tactics.


Under its 2014 peace agreement with the government, signed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, a new “Bangsamoro” area of Muslim self-rule will be established in part of the southern Philippines. Since MILF laid down its arms, other Muslim rebel groups, including Maute and Abu Sayyaf, have gained in strength.


Captain Arvin Encinas, spokesperson for the Philippine Armed Forces’ 6th Infantry Division that has security jurisdiction in Maguindanao, told Asia Times that government troops are not actually fighting alongside MILF fighters on the ground.


“The military has been providing the MILF rebels with aerial and artillery fire support,” he said. “Our troops are stationed away from the MILF rebels who are battling the IS-inspired groups. We don’t want to give the terrorists room to escape.”


Encinas lauded the MILF for neutralizing IS groups lodged in Maguindanao, a historically tumultuous area that has been on high alert for possible spillover effects from the Marawi fighting. President Rodrigo Duterte has placed all of Mindanao under martial law to guard against the spread of extremist-driven instability.


Encinas claimed the joint government-MILF operations have mitigated the risk of a Marawi-like scenario erupting elsewhere in Mindanao, a threat he characterized as increasingly “remote.” Security experts, however, believe the risk of IS militant extremism spreading is still clear and present in light of the terror group’s stated aim of establishing a wilayah, or province, in the region.


“The threat is very serious because pro-Islamic State groups in the Philippines have the intention to wreak havoc on behalf of the Islamic State and have developed strong capabilities to mount terror attacks, including suicide terrorism and vehicular terrorism,” Rommel Banlaoi, chair of the Manila-based Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, told Asia Times.


The Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, an independent think tank, said in a recent report that four Philippine militant groups have established clear links with IS militants in Asia, namely the Abu Sayyaf Group, Maute Group, the BIFF and the Ansar Khilafah Philippines.


The report cited the September 2, 2016, night market bombing in Davao City, Duterte’s hometown, that killed 14 people and wounded over 60 others as evidence of the militant groups’ violent, destabilizing designs for the region.


“It means that more deadly violence in the Philippines involving alliances of pro-Islamic State groups is a matter of when, not if. It may also increase the possibility of cross-border extremist operations,” the report said.


Banlaoi notes that violent religious extremism is now a cross-border problem that Manila must fight with the help of different stakeholders, even with strange bedfellows like the MILF, an ethnic Moro group that has long fought for autonomy though a so-called Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro.


MILF peace panel chair Iqbal stresses that the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) and the full implementation of its autonomy-granting peace agreement “are examples of concrete steps that can provide long-term solutions against violent religious extremism.”


The BBL, however, was not among the 28 legislative priority bills approved by parliament in August, with Malacanang later insisting it remains a high policy priority of Duterte’s administration after the MILF decried its exclusion.


On September 21, the 45th anniversary of late strongman Ferdinand Marcos’ declaration of martial law, a nearly nine-year period attended by massive state-sponsored abuses, Duterte visited Marawi for the fifth time amid demonstrations against his lethal drug war and calls to lift martial law.


Duterte told troops amid the latest military push to fully recapture Marawi that martial law in Mindanao “would be lifted after Marawi is liberated” from the Maute Group, which he claimed was also involved in the illegal drug trade. But its unclear how many militants have slipped away from Marawi and now lay in wait for a next urban warfare target.





Strange bedfellows in Philippine-Islamic State fight | Asia Times

“Violent extremism is not acceptable in Islam,” Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s peace implementing panel chair, said in a recent statement.

Before going off and shooting up villages.

Philippines’ Duterte Declares Marawi Freed From 'Terrorist Influence'

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has declared the southern city of Marawi "liberated from the terrorist influence" after a five-month battle to retake the southern city from Islamic militants.


Duterte's declaration in front of a group of rain-soaked troops Tuesday came a day after two key militant leaders, Isnilon Hapilon and Omarkhayam Maute, were killed during a targeted military operation. Hapilon, who swore allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was one of the most wanted terrorists listed by the United States, which offered a $5 million reward for his arrest.


Despite the president's declaration of victory, military officials said a small pocket of 20 to 30 armed militants are still holding about 20 hostages in Marawi, a city of 200,000 located on the southern island of Mindanao.


More than 1,000 people have been killed since May 23, when Philippine security forces launched a mission to capture Hapilon. The raid collapsed after a wave of militants stormed the city and went on a rampage, burning houses, a university and Catholic churches and taking scores of hostages. Much of Marawi has been leveled by airstrikes aimed at bringing an end to the siege.


Military officials say they are also searching for Mahmud Ahmad, a close associate of Hapilon who experts say is likely to take over for Hapilon as Islamic State's leader in the region.


The southern Philippines, particularly the resource-rich but poverty-wracked Mindanao region, has long been a hotbed of activity by the Abu Sayyaf and other fundamentalist groups.


https://www.voanews.com/a/philippine...e/4073731.html

Philippines says ‘big possibility’ militant leader Mahmud killed

MARAWI CITY, Philippines--The Philippine military said on Thursday there was a "big possibility" that a top Malaysian militant tipped to become Islamic State's point man in Southeast Asia has been killed in a battle overnight.


Twenty rebels among the remaining Islamic State loyalists holed up in the devastated heart of Marawi city were killed in the latest fighting, likely including Malaysian Mahmud Ahmad, said Col. Romeo Brawner, deputy commander of a military task force.


"There is a big possibility that Dr. Mahmud is among them," Brawner told reporters.


"But we will only be definite once we have a match of probably DNA samples, maybe of the dental records."


If confirmed, Mahmud's death would be a blow to any effort by Islamic State, which is on the back foot in Syria and Iraq, to establish a presence in Mindanao, an island with a history of rebellion and home to the predominantly Roman Catholic nation's Muslim minority.


The Marawi siege has been the Philippines' biggest security crisis in years, but some experts see it as a prelude to a more ambitious bid by militants to exploit Mindanao's poverty and use its jungles and mountains as a base to train, recruit and launch attacks in the region.


The armed forces in a statement said 13 militants were killed overnight and seven on Monday morning.


Two hostages were rescued and information they provided meant the authorities were "increasingly becoming confident" that Mahmud was dead.


PIVOTAL ROLE


The 39-year-old former university lecturer is believed to have been pivotal in raising and channeling funds for the alliance and its foreign fighters during an occupation that has lasted 150 days, killing more than 1,000 people, mostly rebels. Central Marawi has been flattened by government air strikes.


Some experts say Mahmud could become Islamic State's Southeast Asian "emir" after the death on Monday of Isnilon Hapilon, the head of the alliance that seeks to carve out an Islamic State "Wilaya" in the southern Philippines.


Philippine soldiers on Monday killed Hapilon, a target of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. They also killed Omarkhayam Maute, one of two brothers at the helm of the Maute militant clan.


Mahmud was seen in a video alongside Hapilon and the Maute brothers plotting the Marawi siege. Security experts say he studied in Pakistan and learned to make bombs in an al Qaeda camp in Afghanistan. He left Malaysia in 2014.


Brawner said the military was relentless in finishing off the rebels, but was unsure how many were left. Estimates on Monday were 20 to 40 fighters.


"The resistance is still there. In fact, we can hear from the background, the battle is ongoing," he said.


Security analyst Rommel Banlaoi said the end of Mahmud would not mean the end of the extremists' presence in Mindanao.


"There are still high-value terrorist personalities who are still at large in Mindanao, not to mention other foreign fighters coming from Indonesia and elsewhere in the Arab world," he said on television.


"They are very, very elusive and because they mixed with the communities and at the same time, they hang out with the armed groups that have the mastery of the terrain in Mindanao. It's very difficult for them to be caught by the military."





Philippines says ?big possibility? militant leader Mahmud killed?The Asahi Shimbun

Australia to send 'urban warfare' troops to Philippines in fight against IS

Australia will send approximately 80 troops to the Philippines to train its military in urban warfare and counter the "brutal tactics" used by terrorists.
Defence Minister Marise Payne announced the training during a visit to Manila for talks with her south-east Asian counterparts on Tuesday.
"The ADF will provide mobile training teams that will begin providing urban warfare counter-terrorism training in the Philippines in the coming days," Senator Payne said.
"This training will be conducted on Philippines military bases. It will involve a range of skills related to combat in urban environments. It will involve information sharing and experience sharing."
Australia to send 'urban warfare' troops to Philippines in fight against IS | SBS News

A Victory Against ISIS in the Philippines Leaves a City Destroyed

Sometimes one has to wonder whether the method of cure is worse than the disease.

Philippine Congress Extends Martial Law in Troubled South for One Year

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has won legislative approval to extend martial law for a year in the southern Mindanao region, which was besieged by Islamic militants earlier this year.


A joint session of Congress voted 240-27 Wednesday to grant Duterte power to continue martial law until December 31, 2018. The president imposed martial law in the region back in May, after insurgent forces seized the city of Marawi went on a rampage, burning houses, Catholic churches and taking scores of hostages. Philippine forces drove out the militants after a five-month battle, including a massive bombing campaign that left more than 1,000 people dead and the city in ruins.


Opponents said extending martial law in Mindanao is unconstitutional, because Duterte declared Marawi to be "liberated from the terrorist influence" in October. They also warned that Duterte could declare martial law throughout the entire Philippines and restore authoritarian rule similar to that of the late President Ferdinand Marcos from 1972 until he was overthrown in a popular uprising in 1986.

https://www.voanews.com/a/martial-la...s/4161711.html

Filipinos Find Gains, No Pain Under Martial Law

CAGAYAN DE ORO, PHILIPPINES — Martial law declared in the southern Philippines over much of the year has had little impact on most people in the area, reducing any anxiety about a proposal to renew it in 2018.


Despite fears that martial law declared over the island of Mindanao in May would follow the harsher measures taken by authoritarian ex-president Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, people on the island say little has changed outside a single city where troops were fighting a group of armed Muslim rebels.


Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered martial law through December 31 so troops and police could bypass legal procedures in capturing suspected supporters of the Islamic State-inspired Maute Group in Marawi city. The fighting ended in October with 1,127 dead, but the president is seeking an extension in 2018 as violence flares up on another part of the ever-restive island.


Extension of the law that gives local authorities the ability to declare curfews, skirt due process and set up road checkpoints is unlikely to stir fear in people outside conflict zones, locals and analysts say. So far, a lot of common Mindanao inhabitants see just the occasional checkpoint.


“It’s a different martial law compared to the martial law that was imposed in 1972,” said Oscar Moreno, mayor of Mindanao’s industrial port city Cagayan de Oro.


“There are safeguards in the Constitution that have certainly been introduced because of the lessons of the 1972 martial law, so martial law as it is universally understood may not necessarily apply here in the city or here in the province or here in Mindanao or here in the whole country.”



Fear of a Marcos era repeat


Martial law under Marcos called for curfews, bans on public assembly and military arrests of people such as Communist insurgents who were suspected of plotting to undermine the government. Marcos was afraid then the government could be toppled.

Since 1987, the Philippine constitution has set limits on martial law, including sign-off by legislators and in some cases the Supreme Court. Martial law cannot suspend the constitution.

In Mindanao this year, the Armed Forces of the Philippines had set up about 17,500 road checkpoints on the island, established curfews in 129 population centers and deployed some 9,700 people to patrol public spaces by June according to the news website Davaotoday.com.



Day in the life of a Mindanao city


But on a recent night in Moreno’s city of 675,000 people, people were shopping around dusk at a sprawling two-story mall. A group laughed and shared mobile phone content over pizza just outside, and across the street a hotel lobby bar filled with business people. No one mentioned curfews.


The only persistent sign of martial law in Cagayan de Oro, as locals told it, is a military-run checkpoint between the city and its airport about one hour’s drive to the west. Marawi lies about another hour west of the airport.


Citizens believe martial law has helped troops get a grip on Marawi and stop the war from spreading. Some expect the checkpoints to lower the risk of car-jackings on rural highways.


“For us it’s really just the checkpoints, but you get to the checks and they’re really not that strict about it anymore,” said Rhona Canoy, president of International School Cagayan de Oro. “That’s all there is, no curfews, no nothing, and that’s what it’s been like since they declared (martial law).”


Cagayan de Oro doesn’t need martial law because people in the city already “protect themselves,” said Michael Esclamado, who works as a driver in the city.


“Children seem scared about martial law, about war, that’s why I don’t like martial law here,” he said. The city has always been “100 percent safe,” he said.



Martial law renewal in 2018?


This month, the presidential office said the country’s defense department and national police have suggested to the president an extension of martial law in Mindanao, adding that Duterte is “studying the recommendations.”


“(Duterte’s) paramount concern is the security of our people especially the Mindanaoans in the face of threats and the use of available means under the law to fight them,” said a statement on the presidential website.


Officials must prove evidence of rebellion to justify martial law, but may have found one December 3. That day, the Muslim rebel group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters killed two civilians in attacks in Maguindanao province. Duterte suspects Islamic State may be supporting those fighters to establish a caliphate, the news website Rappler.com reported.


It’s “well known they’re gathering forces,” said Eduardo Araral, associate professor at the National University of Singapore’s public policy school.


“They don’t need a lot of fighters to create a lot of havoc,” said Araral, a native of Mindanao. “They just have to hold hostage one big mall for a few days and then that could do a lot of damage psychologically to the country, so I think the military and Duterte know something that the rest of the world, the rest of the Philippines doesn’t know.”

https://www.voanews.com/a/martial-la...d/4161691.html

Duterte announced today "He's tired", and plans to step down in 2020. Sounds like a flounce to me......

^Or the political tea leaves indicate he will lose if he doesn't "step down".

^Kind of doubt it, but then....it is the PI.

Originally Posted by Norton

^Or the political tea leaves indicate he will lose if he doesn't "step down".

The President of the Philippines is elected for a term of six years.
He may only serve for one term, and is ineligible for reelection.

DU30's term should finish 30 June 2022