“Until the armed forces and the police say that the Philippines is safe, this martial law will continue,” Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said during a crisis management visit to Mindanao, suddenly the epicenter of terror group Islamic State’s thrust into Southeast Asia.
“I will not listen to anyone else, be it the Supreme Court, congressmen. They’re not here.”
The tough-talking, popularly elected Filipino president has again raised the specter of forging full-blown authoritarianism, sparking fears he could veer the country back towards the iron fisted, rights abusing rule seen under former autocrat Ferdinand Marcos.
Marcos leveraged a deteriorating security situation in 1972, characterized by mysterious bombs in the capital and a rising communist insurgency, to impose over a decade of emergency rule that brooked no opposition. Duterte has repeatedly warned he may extend martial law beyond his home island of Mindanao across the entire country if Islamic militants strike other areas.
The controversial leader provoked a global outcry by quipping that he would stand “shoulder to shoulder” with his soldiers even if they committed rape while waging war.
Legal experts and human rights advocates said that Duterte could potentially be prosecuted if such statements were construed as encouraging war crimes. Presidential aides have said Duterte’s comments were merely “heightened bravado” and not calls to rape and pillage.
Duterte’s controversial statements were likely meant to communicate his support for the military and security forces, which are now charged with implementing his martial law order. The comments also likely aimed to strike fear into the hearts of his opponents, namely the Islamic State affiliated groups which have laid a bloody siege to the city of Marawi.
The Philippine military claims that it is taking back full control of the besieged city, the largest in the Muslim-majority region of the Philippines. Reports from the ground suggest that the government is waging a tortuous and risky urban warfare, which may last for weeks if not months.
Almost the entirety of the city’s population has fled in fear and desperation, but a significant number have stayed behind to protect their belongings from theft and destruction. This has raised the risk of civilian casualties and placed constraints on the government’s military operations, which have included aerial bombardments.
The government is perturbed by reports that foreign fighters, possibly even from the Middle East but definitely from neighboring Indonesia, Malaysia and even Singapore, have been involved in the Marawi clashes. If true, it marks a precarious internationalization of Mindanao’s long-running conflict.
As the first Filipino president from Mindanao, Duterte is under extraordinary pressure to not only eliminate the threat of IS infiltration into the Philippines, but also to end the conflict in his home island, one of his top campaign promises.
While rights advocates and political opponents have rung alarm bells over Duterte’s declaration of martial law, the order has won support across the wider political establishment and apparently a broad cross-section of the general public that fears the violence seen in Marawi city could spread across the country without a firm government response.
According to the Philippine Constitution, the president will have to secure the approval of the legislature to sustain and extend martial law beyond its initial 60-day limit.
Duterte currently enjoys super-majority support in the lower house, but has faced stiff resistance in the upper-house Senate, where independent as well as opposition members have often openly criticized the president’s conduct and policies.
Several of them have already strongly opposed any extension of martial law beyond Mindanao while seeking full congressional approval of the declaration.
Duterte’s allies, however, have managed to stifle that opposition. Fifteen of 23 senators have filed a resolution affirming the legality and validity of Duterte’s executive order. Voting 12-9, Duterte’s allies also struck down a resolution, filed by opposition members, to convene a joint session of both houses of Congress to collectively assess the legal grounds for martial law, as required by the Philippine constitution.
This is the fourth time in Philippine history that an elected president has resorted to martial law to address a security crisis. The first came under Jose P Laurel, a transitional leader during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in 1944. Then came president-turned-dictator Marcos, who assumed full emergency powers in 1972 until his dethronement in 1986.
Prior to Dutetre, the most recent declaration was by the highly unpopular President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who declared martial law in the province of Maguindanao for only eight days in December 2009. Both Marcos and Laurel, however, maintained long-term martial law which contributed to their eventual downfalls.
Other democratically-elected presidents, namely Fidel Ramos (1992-1998), Joseph Estrada (1998-2001), and Benigno Aquino (2010-2016), all refused to declare martial law even when faced with large-scale rebellion and similar clashes with extremist groups in Mindanao.
Duterte is now focused on soliciting assistance from other major rebel groups, including the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Moro National Liberation Front, and communist insurgent groups, to fight against IS-affiliates like Maute Group and the Abu Sayaff Group, both involved in the Marawi city siege.
The government has peace deals in place with MNLF and MILF, Islamic groups that would on the surface appear to be natural allies with IS-affiliated militant groups.
After dedicating much of his first year in office to a brutal campaign against illegal drugs, Duterte is now scrambling to address a security crisis with complicated international dimensions. While his initial resort to tough security measures is in line with his hard-knuckled rule, it will take all of his diplomatic and political skills to halt Islamic State’s march into a volatile region long skeptical of Manila’s rule.
MARTIAL LAW,DICTATORSHIP AND AUTHORITARIANISM IS NOT THE ANSWER IN THE LONG CONFLICT IN MNDANANAO AND SO WITH HIS DRUG WAR.BUT THE ELIMINATION OF CORRUPTION AND EQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH THEN WILL SURELY ATTAIN PEACE IN THE REGION. UNFOTUNATELY MOST OF THE CORRUPT IN HIS GOVT SPECIALLY IN CONGRESS ARE ALL COMES FROM MINDANAO,SOME MAY NOT BUT THEIR LOYALTY ARE PAID TO SUPPORT HIS AMBITIOUS AUTHORITARIANISM THAT WILL EVENTUALLY LEAD TO THE STABLISHMENT OF A COMMUNIST STATE TO PROTECT CHINA’S INTEREST AND TO DIVERT ATENTION FROM THE SEA DISPUTES BETWEEN THE SOUTH EAST ASIAN NATIONS AND THE INTERNATIONAL TRIBUNAL DECISION FAVORING THE PHILIPPINES ON THE CLAIM IN WEST PHILIPPINE SEA.. THE UNERSIEGED INCIDENTS THAT OCCURED IN MARAWI THAT LED TO THE DECLARATION OF MARTIAL LAW AT THE VERY SACRED FESTIVITIES OF ISLAM →THE RAMADAN RAISED SO MUCH QUESTION ON ISLAM RELIGION AND BELIEFS THAT WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE FOR A MUSLIM AND ISLAM BELIEVERS TO HURT AND LAUNCH AN ATTACK TO HIS BROTHER AND FELLOW MUSLIM AT THE TIME OF FASTING AND CLEANSING SEASON ?
WOULD THE MENACE A SELF INFLICT TERRORISM JUST TO JUSTIFY THE LONG PLANNED DECLARATION OF MARTIAL LAW ?
THERE ARE SO MANY QUESTION THAT NEEDS TO BE ANSWER NOT TO CREATE ANOTHER SCENARIO TO DIVERT PEOPLES ATTENTION.STOP SPREADING FEARS AND CREATING CHAOS.
What a shameful article. You think you know the man and his motives. The previous presidents did not declare martial law for a reason. Different intel, different times or maybe they simply didn’t have the balls. They were politicians, the other presidents were. Our sitting president isn’t. Do you not see what ISIS can do? Would you rather that our pres not do anything now and wait until more innocent people dies? And when that happens it would still be his fault, right?
Some people hate Duterte more than they hate the terrorists.
Demonising a strong, honest, likeable leader like Mr Duterte will not work. The author has no shame, a distinct lack of morals and goodwill towards Philippines and hampers the efforts of President Duterte to deal with the serious drug and insurgency problems afflicting his nation.
Wherever USA is present, such problems appear due to CIA drug operations and its training and arming militants
Demonising a strong, honest, likeable leader like Mr Duterte will not work. The author has no shame and a distinct lack of morals and goodwill towards Philippines.
I know saudi money has gone into radicalisation of Muslims in Indonesia.
It is well known that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies are supporters of the Islamacist terrorist groups around the world. Hillary Clinton said as much in one of the leaked emails, so the CIA knows all about this. KSA is THE premier sponsor of terror in the world. In spite of this, or rather, because of this, Trump just agreed to sell hundreds of billions worth of weapons to KSA, weapons which can be used to supply terrorists around the world.
Any chance of interests within Filipino government, drug Lords, police, military and US been involved in supporting these rebels in these latest flare ups?
I doubt the Philippines need a dictatorship to solve their problems with drugs, corruption, and terrorism (even though it would not have hurt). The backstabbing Filipino Senators slow down the progress in President Duterte plans. President Duterte do not want to be a dictator and his popularity is very high so he does not need to be a dictator. Despite US covert actions, the Philippines military seem to be on Duterte’s side. The terrorist does not pose any existential treat to the Philippines and they are unable to hold on to any land.
Philippine National Police (PNP) has done a very good job in the war on drugs, 1.5 million addicts being rehabilitated, 65.000 drug dealers arrested, and only a few thousand killed.
The Philippine Army (AFP) seem to be able to liberate Malawi in a few days. There might be no need to extend the martial law beyond the two months. The AFP will use another one year two eliminate the three other ISIS franchises. President Duterte is doing the job that previous administrations ignored. The ISIS problem has been a problem for years, but the President Aquino did give the problem a very low priority. ISIS is getting assistance from abroad and this has to be addressed.
There is no doubt the Maute Group get funds from illegal drugs and some foreign funding from Kuwait and other Arab nations. We know Chechen, a Yemeni and several Malaysian and Indonesian fighters who joined this ISIS Maute group has been killed. There are strong Indonesians ties and from monitoring ISIS chat rooms on internet we see there is a large support base in Indonesia.
The Maute group use child soldiers as young as four years old! Among the 177.000 IDP there is approximately 50.000 children UNICEF told us today. AFP has done an impressive job rescuing the refugees and to fight the Maute Group. Approximately 150 terrorists killed so far.
Martial law has resulted in crime free days in Davao (Mindanao). PNP warned about increased terrorism risk in CEBU, but the usually clairvoyant US embassy in Manila has not issued a warning to US citizens.
There is no need for a dictatorship to fight the rebels. It seems MILF and MNLF get along with the Duterte administration and think Duterte will address many of their grievances. What is suprising is that NPA is still on the fence and even create trouble for AFP while they are fighting ISIS. Today NPA created trouble in Samar. NPA popularity will not increase due to their indirect assistance to the ISIS. The political wing, NDF, is in the Netherland involved in peace talks, were the Norwegian clowns is the facilitators. It has been clear the NPA does not respect the NDF and the talks seem to be a waste of time. It would be in the communist best interest to support the President Duterte administration, since any other option would be worse for the communists. NPA could have done a good job helping the PNP, NBI, AFP in the war on drugs, corruption, and terrorism.
The main problem is not the nuisance created by the, soon to be finished off terrorists, but the Philippines relations with the USA. The US State Department started the preparations to “unseat” President Duterte long before he was elected. This is a concern for the Philippines. President Duterte and President Trump get along just fine. President Trump should ask the US State Department to kindly abstain from covert operations against President Duterte. The Philippines has been and will be a trusted friend of the USA. The Philippines just want to be treated as a sovereign state and see no need for the US to interfere in Philippines domestic or foreign policy. The US State Department covert operations has pushed the Philippines closer to China and Russia, a move that seems to be very beneficial for the Philippines, but might not fit into the US Geopolitical strategies.