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News > World

Duterte Threatens to Impose Martial Law on All of Philippines

  • Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, on May 24, 2017.

    Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte speaks during a news conference at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila, Philippines, on May 24, 2017. | Photo: Reuters

Published 24 May 2017
Opinion

The announcement has raised concerns about abuses and human rights violations.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday he wouldn't rule out placing the entire country under martial law if the threat of the Islamic State group spreads.

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Duterte declared martial law in the Philippines’ southern Mindanao province on Tuesday as fighting between the army and militants linked to the Islamic State group broke out in Marawi City.

The president's spokesperson Ernesto Abella made the announcement in Moscow, where the president was on a four-day official visit to Russia. Duterte decided to cut his visit short and returned to Manila early Wednesday morning. 

Before leaving Russia, Duterte talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin for an hour. In the meeting, Duterte told Putin that the Philippines needs modern arms to fight the Islamic State group and he expected support from Russia. 

"The hardest thing to deal with would be the arrival of ISIS in the country and it has come to pass. And that is there is really war going on. Government must put an end to this," Duterte said to reporters upon his arrival in Manila, according to Philippines’ Sun Star. 

"I might declare martial law throughout the country to protect the people," he added.

The ongoing clash in Marawi City is aimed at neutralizing militant group Abu Sayyaf’s leader Isnilon Hapilon, who is reportedly the representative of the Islamic State group in the Philippines.

Hapilon was spotted along with an estimated 15 fully armed members of the Maute group in the area earlier. The Maute group, which is also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, has reportedly received support from the IS group. Last year, reports said that Hapilon brought some of his Abu Sayyaf insurgents to Marawi City to allegedly join the Maute Group, according to The Philippine Star newspaper.

The fighting erupted on Tuesday afternoon when the Maute group opened fire on personnel from the military’s 103rd Brigade, a police director said. 

Thirteen militants and seven members of the security forces have so far been killed and 33 troops wounded in the fighting, according to the military. 

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said, “As of tonight (Tuesday, May 23), the Maute group burned several facilities — the church, city jail, the Ninoy Aquino School and the Dansalan College. The Maute fighters still occupy also the main street of Marawi city called the Quezon Street and two bridges."

A Philippine Roman Catholic church leader says a priest and several churchgoers have been taken hostage from a cathedral by gunmen in a southern city.

On Wednesday, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and another church official said on Wednesday that gunmen forced their way into a cathedral in Marawi city and seized the Reverend Chito Suganob and more than a dozen churchgoers and staff as fighting raged between government troops and Muslim militants.

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Villegas said the gunmen have threatened to kill the hostages "if government forces unleashed against them are not recalled." The Archbishop asked Filipinos to pray for the captives and for the government to make their safety a primary concern.

Maute gunmen also reported set free 107 inmates from two jails they attacked late Tuesday.

The Department of National Defense on Wednesday said the security situation in Marawi City was already “contained,” and it’s only “a matter of time” before the Maute group militants are “taken down” as the government pours in more troops to Marawi City.

The Defense department also called on the public to be vigilant and security conscious in the statement.

The Marawi fighting came weeks after the military foiled a mass kidnapping attempt by the Abu Sayyaf on Philippines’ central Bohol island. 

In March, Duterte pleaded for help from mayors in Muslim areas of the south of the country to deal with Islamist militants, and threatened to impose martial law there if the problem was not tackled.

The declaration of martial law has raised concerns of potential human rights violations as Duterte promised to be “harsh” in dealing with terrorists.

Emmanuel Amistad, executive director of the Task Force of Detainees of the Philippines, said in a statement that the group is "deeply concerned" with the declaration on Tuesday night, which it warned could be "a slippery slope and will be at the expense of human rights, justice and peace."

Human rights group Karapatan said in its release that martial Law will inevitably result in intensified military operations, which could result in civilian casualties and lead to an "open season for extrajudicial killings, illegal arrests, torture and other forms of rights violations."

Karapatan condemned the attacks by the Maute group and called for an in-depth investigation into the clashes, but it said,  "Martial law is not the answer.”

In a video interview posted on Facebook, Duterte said the martial law in Mindanao, which would apply for 60 days initially, would be like that of the 1970s rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, remembered by many Filipinos as one of the darkest chapters of recent history. 

Edgard Arevalo, chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Public Affairs Office, has assured the public that the imposition of martial law will be done according to the law and with respect for human rights.

"We will do this without abuse, we will do this in consonance with existing laws," he said Wednesday.

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