DUTERTE TO PUTIN: I NEED A SOFT LOAN TO BUY WEAPONS
Duterte cuts short Russia trip to deal with crisis in Marawi City
President Rodrigo Duterte met late Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin and asked him for a soft loan to buy weapons with which to fight Muslim extremists in the country.
Duterte made the request shortly after clashes erupted between government troops and the group of Isnilon Hapilon, a former Abu Sayyaf leader who allegedly has links to international terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur in Mindanao.
Hapilon’s group is being aided by members of the Maute group. Two soldiers and a policeman have been killed while at least 12 have been injured.
“I need to buy, if you can grant me a soft loan. We’ll (use) the money and pay it right away because the arms that we ordered from America was cancelled,” Duterte said he told Putin in a bilateral meeting at Grand Kremlin Palace in Moscow late Tuesday night, Russia time.
“ISIS occupied a few provinces in the Philippines. There is fighting going on and I have to go home and I should be there tonight. It’s an urgent matter,” he added.
Putin shared his sentiments over the “horrible” attack of bandits in Marawi City and was optimistic that Duterte will be able to end the conflict “with minimal losses.”
“I have to express our condolences as a matter of fact, loss of lives of your people happened because of a horrible terrorist attack. And my colleagues and myself definitely understand quite well that you do have to come back to return to your motherland,” Putin said.
“And let me express hope that the conflict that you have just mentioned will be resolved as soon as possible and with minimal losses and casualties,” he added.
Duterte cut short his trip to Russia to return home and deal with the Marawi crisis. The President arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
He declared martial law for 60 days in Mindanao at about 10 p.m. Tuesday and suspended the writ of habeas corpus as well.
In a press conference upon his arrival, he said he might extend the declaration to cover the Visayas and even the entire country.
Duterte’s martial law declaration will help government forces carry out searches and arrests and detain rebel suspects more quickly, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.
He said offensives would also be staged in other southern provinces plagued by extremist groups.
Despite the extremists’ moves, Lorenzana said the government remains in control of the situation in Marawi city and other security trouble spots in the south.
Armed Forces chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año said the fighting started when troops attacked a hideout of Hapilon, who called for reinforcements from the Maute group.
Nearly 50 gunmen in all managed to enter the city, Año said.
About 20 of the gunmen took position in a hospital, where they raised a black Islamic State group-style flag at the gate, and 10 other militants were fighting troops and police near a provincial jail, he said.
The militants also allegedly burned a Catholic church, a college and some houses. They have also allegedly taken hostages.
Martial law could be extended for a year depending on how long the problem could be quelled, Duterte said on board a plane en route to the Philippines.
“I said I would be harsh and I warned everybody not to force my hand into it,” Duterte said. “I have to do it to preserve the republic.”
“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.