Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Declares Martial Rule in Southern Part of Country

[sandensea]

Source: Time

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared the country's south under martial rule for 60 days and cut short a visit to Moscow on Tuesday after Muslim extremists allied with the Islamic State group laid siege to a southern city.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella told a news conference in Moscow that martial rule took effect Tuesday evening in the southern region of Mindanao "on the grounds of existence of rebellion."

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said troops raided the hideout of a top terrorist suspect in southern Marawi city on Tuesday, sparking a gunbattle that prompted the militants to call for reinforcements from an allied group, the Maute. He said dozens of gunmen occupied city hall, a hospital and a jail and burned a Catholic church, a jail, a college and some houses in a bold attack that killed at least two soldiers and a police officer and wounded 12 others.

Several militants were killed in the fighting in Marawi city in Lanao del Sur province, about 830 kilometers (520 miles) south of Manila, but others continued to lay siege to the largely Muslim city of more than 200,000 people, officials said, adding that power was cut in the city in a chaotic scene.

"The whole of Marawi city is blacked out, there is no light, and there are Maute snipers all around," Lorenzana said in the news conference in Moscow, which was broadcast live in the Philippines.

Read more: http://time.com/4791237/rodrigo-duterte-martial-law-philippines/

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Cheeto must be so jealous.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Marawi mayor, cops holed up at city hall; tension down but threat not over

“The situation as of 8 a.m. has been under control. Tension is down, but I cannot say that Maute Group and ISIS are gone. I was told some of them left the city toward the towns surrounding the city,” he said in a phone interview.
...
Gandamra and personnel from Marawi City Police are now holed up at the city hall, as of Wednesday morning, a few blocks away from the scene of fierce fighting and burning of schools.

“The city hall is safe and secured although there are firefights around it,” Gandamra said. “I am in the city hall, we will not allow them to come in,” he said of the Maute Group.

On the number of casualties among civilians, Gandamra said reports have been confusing because people posted in the social media about teachers of Dansalan College being beheaded. “That is not confirmed, we have conflicting reports, I will not confirm that. The burning of the school and the St. Mary’s Church, yes, that was confirmed by the military too,” he said.

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/899117/marawi-mayor-cops-holed-up-at-city-hall-tension-down-but-threat-not-over

This is a worrying situation. It's not helped by the thought that Duterte will probably try to take advantage of it in the way Erdogan did of the Turkish coup last year.