28 May, 2017
The announcement elevates the threat of what experts and the military say are moves by Islamic State to exploit the poverty and lawlessness of predominantly Muslim Mindanao island to establish a base for extremists from Southeast Asia and beyond.
Young residents flee with their belongings after Muslim militants lay siege in Marawi city, southern Philippines, Thursday, May 25, 2017. Army tanks packed with soldiers rolled into t.
Malacanang has submitted a report to both the Senate and House of Representatives which also reveals that the Maute Group had already infiltrated 75 percent of Marawi, with the plan of targeting Christian communities while trying to recruit Muslim youths.
Lahad Datu Marine Police commanding officer Supt Ahmad Arifin said the meeting with the the Philippines Maritime Police Force was held to exchange information on the current situation in southern Philippines and to increase monitoring in the waters of Malaysia and the Philippines.
In a sign that the long-standing problem of militancy in the south could be expanding, Solicitor General Jose Calida said foreigners were fighting alongside the gunmen in Marawi, including Indonesians and Malaysians.
Since late Tuesday, militants have torn through the streets of Marawi, torching buildings, taking a priest and his worshippers hostage and sealing off much of the city.
Gen Padilla said 11 soldiers, two policemen and 31 militants had been confirmed killed in the fighting, which has involved the military bombing buildings where the militants have been hiding.
"At night we can hear the gunfire", said Mohammad Usman, who watched from his home just outside Marawi as thousands of residents streamed out of the city. One local police chief told the AP on Friday that he was fine - two days after Duterte announced he had been beheaded by militants.
According to Mr Enriquez, the former chief was shot dead in a clash with the extremists on Tuesday outside a Marawi hospital.
Philippine security forces dropped more bombs on Saturday on a southern city where they have been battling Islamist militants for five days, vowing no let up despite the start of Ramadan.
(AP Photo/Bullit Marquez). Men jump from their vehicle known as "Jeepney" to be frisked by police at a checkpoint leading to Marawi city in southern Philippines Thursday, May 25, 2017.
Eighteen rebels were killed on Thursday, the army said.
PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte may have had the best intentions in declaring martial law in Mindanao following the escalating violence in Marawi City in Mindanao, but many Filipinos in America continue to be haunted by the ghost of Marcos-era martial law years.
"The Philippine government has a responsibility to protect the population from armed militants, but gaining the backing of affected people means abiding by the rule of law", Kine said.
The statement was critical of martial law imposed across all of Mindanao and said military solutions to the problems had repeatedly failed. But the recent violence has raised fears that extremism could be growing as smaller militant groups unify and align themselves with the Islamic State group. They freed more than 100 prisoners and took a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city's cathedral.
The protesters were a mix of activists who survived the Marcos dictatorship's martial law, the "martial law babies" or those who grew up under the dictatorship, and the millennials. Protest leader Teddy Casino warned that there might be more extrajudicial killings and human rights violations.
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing the city of some 200,000 people.
The Maute gunmen were protecting Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a kidnapping-for-ransom gang called the Abu Sayyaf that is also believed to have only a few hundred gunmen but is blamed for the nation's worst terrorist attacks.
