Priest among 14 hostages taken in siege
Crackdown launched after Marawi rampage
MANILA: Muslim extremists abducted a Catholic priest and more than a dozen churchgoers while laying siege to a southern Philippine city, beheading a police chief, burning buildings, ambushing soldiers and hoisting flags of the Islamic State group, officials said yesterday. President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern third of the nation and warned he would enforce it harshly.
Mr Duterte said martial law could last up to a year and yesterday added he may impose it throughout the nation.
The violence erupted on Tuesday night after the army raided the hideout of Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf commander who is on Washington’s list of most-wanted terrorists with a reward of up to $5 million for his capture. The militants called for reinforcements and around 100 gunmen entered Marawi, a mostly Muslim city of 200,000 people on the southern island of Mindanao, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said yesterday.
Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the militants forced their way into a cathedral in Marawi and seized a priest, 10 worshippers and three church workers. The priest, Father Chito Suganob, and the others had no role in the conflict, Mr Villegas said.
“They have threatened to kill the hostages if the government forces unleashed against them are not recalled,” Mr Villegas said in a statement. “He was not a combatant. He was not bearing arms. He was a threat to none... His capture and that of his companions violates every norm of civilised conflict.”
Mr Duterte said a local police chief was also stopped at a checkpoint and beheaded.
More than 100 gunmen responded to the raid by burning buildings and conducting other diversionary tactics, according to Mr Lorenzana. Photos posted on social media by residents showed the gunmen walking through the streets of Marawi and placing black flags that looked similar to those used by IS.
On Tuesday night Mr Lorenzana said many gunmen were hiding in buildings as snipers, making it difficult for security forces to combat them.
Thousands of residents fled Marawi, according to a photographer at a military checkpoint near Iligan, the next biggest city about 40km away.
“We heard a lot of gunfire and explosions yesterday. We hid inside, we were too frightened to go out,” Noraisa Duca, a Muslim resident of Marawi, said at the checkpoint.
The gunmen killed one policeman and two soldiers on Tuesday, authorities said. They reported further skirmishes overnight in Marawi but yesterday it was unclear how many militants were still in the city or if they had escaped into nearby mountains and forests that they have long used as hideouts.
Mr Duterte declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire Mindanao region and vowed to be “harsh”.
“We are in a state of emergency,” Mr Duterte said yesterday after he cut short a trip to Moscow and flew back to Manila. “I have a serious problem in Mindanao and the Isis footprints are everywhere.”
Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise on commando assaults, pledged allegiance to the IS in 2014. He is a commander of the Abu Sayyaf militant group and was wounded by a military air strike in January.
MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said yesterday he may impose martial law throughout the nation, after declaring military rule in the southern third of the country to combat Islamist militants.
Mr Duterte on Tuesday announced the imposition of martial law in the region of Mindanao, home to about 20 million people, after militants who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group rampaged through a city there.
Mr Duterte said he was considering also imposing martial law through the central third of the Philippines known as the Visayas, because this region is very close to Mindanao. He then also raised the prospect of the northern third of the Philippines, known as Luzon and home to the capital of Manila, falling under martial law.
“If I think that the Isis has already taken foothold also in Luzon, and terrorism is not really far behind, I might declare martial law throughout the country to protect the people,” he said. He said martial law could last a year.
At least three security force personnel died on Tuesday as they battled the militants in Marawi, a mainly Muslim city of about 200,000 people on Mindanao, with authorities reporting that gunmen burned a Catholic Church and other buildings.
“Our fellow Filipinos, do not be too scared,” Mr Duterte said from Moscow, where he had just begun an official visit that he abruptly ended to fly home and deal with the crisis.
Mr Duterte vowed to be ruthless in quelling the terrorism threat in Mindanao, drawing parallels with martial law imposed by dictator Ferdinand Marcos during his two-decade rule that ended with a “People Power” revolution in 1986.
“It could not be any different from what President Marcos did,” Mr Duterte said, as he reminded Filipinos of his election campaign pledge last year to be “harsh” in dealing with terrorism.
“What I told everyone, do not force my hand into it. I have to do it to preserve the Republic of the Philippines, the Filipino people,” he said.
Critics of Mr Duterte, who has waged a controversial war on drugs that has claimed thousands of lives, have feared that he may use various security threats as an excuse to impose a form of authoritarian rule.
Opposition Senator Francis Pangilinan, president of the Liberal Party, expressed concern yesterday that martial law could lead to military abuses, citing extrajudicial killings under Marcos.
“Our painful experience with the imposition of martial law under the Marcos dictatorship should serve as a reminder that we must, as citizens, stay vigilant,” Mr Pangilinan said in a statement.
The fighting in Marawi erupted on Tuesday afternoon after security forces raided a house where they believed Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the infamous Abu Sayyaf kidnap gang and Philippine head of IS, was hiding.
The United States regards Hapilon as one of the world’s most dangerous terrorists, offering a bounty of $5 million for his capture.
More than 100 gunmen responded to the raid by burning buildings and conducting other diversionary tactics, according to Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana.
Photos posted on social media by residents showed the gunmen walking through the streets of Marawi and placing black flags that looked similar to those used by IS.
Mr Lorenzana said on Tuesday night that many gunmen were hiding in buildings as snipers, making it difficult for security forces to combat them.
Yesterday Islamist militants who triggered martial law were threatening to kill a priest and other hostages, the Catholic Church said. Militants also beheaded a local police chief near Marawi, Mr Duterte said yesterday.
Authorities did not give any updates on the whereabouts of Hapilon.
The Abu Sayyaf, based on the most southern islands of Mindanao, has kidnapped hundreds of Filipinos and foreigners since the early 1990s to extract ransoms. The United States lists it as a terrorist organisation.
Security analysts say Hapilon has been trying to unite Filipino militant groups that have professed allegiance to IS. These include the Maute group, which is based near Marawi. The Maute group has engaged in repeated deadly battles with the military over the past year.
The main Muslim rebel groups are involved in peace talks with the government. But the Abu Sayyaf, Maute and other hardline groups are claiming they want to set up an Islamic caliphate in the south for IS, according to security analysts.