Philippines to extend martial law in South

>> MANILA: The Philippine Congress yesterday voted to extend President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in the South until the end of the year to defeat Islamist gunmen.

In a special joint session of the House and the Senate, legislators overwhelmingly backed Mr Duterte’s bid to have martial law remain in force in the Mindanao region until Dec 31.

The vote came as troops continued their two-month long fight to wrest back the southern city of Marawi from Islamic State (IS)-inspired militants.

Mr Duterte first declared martial law in Mindanao on May 23 shortly after the gunmen, waving the black flags of the IS group, occupied parts of Marawi, triggering weeks of bloody fighting.

The vote was largely a foregone conclusion as Mr Duterte enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress.

But opposition lawmakers dragged out the debate, questioning why martial law was needed for the whole of Mindanao when the fighting was limited to only one city.

A slide presentation accompanying Mr Duterte’s request compared the Marawi crisis to the IS takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Marawi itself could now become a magnet for foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, it said.

Most of the militants’ leaders remain at large, the presentation added, while about 90 of the gunmen have slipped past security cordons and can link up with other armed groups in the region to mount similar widescale attacks.

At the hearing, defence and security officials justified the extended martial law, saying that aside from Marawi, Islamist militants were planning attacks in other parts of Mindanao.

They said almost a thousand pro-IS militants, holding 23 hostages, were still active elsewhere in the South.

In Marawi, the military said only about 60 gunmen were left in a 49-hectare area of Marawi, but Mr Duterte said he needed martial law powers to ensure the war did not spread elsewhere.

Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures such as curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a country where civilians are authorised to keep licensed firearms in their homes.

The subject remains sensitive in the Philippines, decades after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the country under military rule for part of his 20-year term.

About a dozen protesters in the gallery interrupted Saturday’s hearing, chanting “never again, never again to martial law” before being escorted out.