Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Martial law upheld

- TERESA CEROJANO Informatio­n for this article was contribute­d by Jim Gomez of The Associated Press.

An activist shouts slogans denouncing martial law in Mindanao, Philippine­s, on Tuesday during a rally in front of the Supreme Court in Manila. The Philippine Supreme Court has upheld President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaratio­n of martial law in the southern third of the country, dismissing petitions to nullify it.

MANILA, Philippine­s — The Philippine Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the president’s declaratio­n of martial law in the south in a legal boost to a military offensive that the defense chief said may soon succeed in quelling an uprising by Islamic State group-linked militants.

Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said 11 of 15 justices voted to dismiss petitions against the declaratio­n of martial law, which President Rodrigo Duterte imposed across the country’s southern third for 60 days after hundreds of gunmen waving Islamic State-style black flags attacked the southern city of Marawi on May 23.

The petitioner­s argued the assault did not constitute a rebellion that could justify martial rule, which might foster human-rights abuses in a country that ousted dictator Ferdinand Marcos in a 1986 revolt over widespread rights violations.

“We were hoping the Supreme Court would be our last line of defense against a patently absurd decision built on a failure of intelligen­ce and a rhetoric of violent machismo,” said Machris Cabreros of Akbayan, a leftist political party whose officers were among the petitioner­s. “Instead they caved in and unwittingl­y opened the door to further creeping authoritar­ianism.”

The government’s top lawyer, Solicitor General Jose Calida, welcomed the decision, saying, “As the conscience of our nation, the Supreme Court did not sit idly to watch our country get dismembere­d.”

Calida has said evidence showed that an Islamic Statelinke­d alliance of four local extremist groups plotted to seize predominan­tly Muslim Marawi as part of a plot to create an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia. Duterte’s move helped troops capture militants and block their movement, security officials said.

After 43 days of intense ground assaults and airstrikes, troops have recaptured most areas of Marawi including parts of its central business district, where the gunmen turned buildings into sniper posts that slowed the military’s advance for weeks. Troops regained control Monday of a key school compound where they recovered 15 assault weapons and found the remains of a foreign-looking fighter, probably a Singaporea­n, military officials said.

In a speech marking the air force’s founding anniversar­y at Clark freeport north of Manila, Duterte said more than 40 Philippine aircraft were involved in the Marawi offensive.

“As we wrap up in our campaign to liberate Marawi, I am confident that the Philippine air force will once again take an active role in the rebuilding of the city,” Duterte said.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana told reporters that troops may be able to recapture the last few areas held by the militants in a week but he added that if the gunmen “fight to the last, then it will be longer.”

Defense officials hope the crisis will end before Duterte delivers his annual state of the nation address on July 24, but Lorenzana said he would let commanders set the pace of the battle to avoid adding pressure that could endanger troops.

The military says 300 to 500 residents may still be trapped in their homes by fierce street-to-street battles. More than 1,700 civilians have been rescued by troops and government volunteers, including many who were shellshock­ed, starving or sick.

About 400,000 villagers have abandoned Marawi, a bastion of Islamic faith with hundreds of mosques, and outlying towns in Lanao del Sur province, about 500 miles southeast of Manila.

The unpreceden­ted urban attack has alarmed Southeast Asian and Western government­s, which fear that the Islamic State group’s brutal rule in Syria and Iraq, now collapsing, may have galvanized Asian militants into attempting to create their own so-called Islamic caliphate in the region with funds from Middle East-based jihadis.

Despite Duterte’s antagonism toward U.S. and Australian officials, who have criticized his bloody crackdown on illegal drugs, the Western allies have deployed surveillan­ce planes to help Philippine troops track down the remaining militants in Marawi.

Lorenzana said Australia deployed two P3 Orion aircraft Friday in Marawi, where a similar U.S. surveillan­ce plane started operating a few weeks ago.

European officials, also often a target of Duterte’s verbal attacks, announced Tuesday that they will provide $980,000 in emergency aid for displaced civilians.

Intense daily airstrikes have depleted the military’s stockpile of bombs dropped by a new fleet of South Korean-made FA50 fighter jets, so a Philippine air force cargo plane was dispatched to the United States to pick up new supplies, Lorenzana said.

 ?? AP/AARON FAVILA ??
AP/AARON FAVILA
 ?? THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? A Philippine policeman tries to block activists protesting martial law near the Supreme Court in Manila on Tuesday.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A Philippine policeman tries to block activists protesting martial law near the Supreme Court in Manila on Tuesday.

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