Tag Archives: Duterte

Philippine leader to expedite bill for self-rule in Muslim region

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairperson Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (2nd from L), Jesus Dureza, Secretary of Peace Process, Ghazali Jaafar (2nd from R), MILF vice-chairman and Mohagher Iqbal, MILF peace panel chairman, hold a draft law of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) during a ceremony at the Malacanang presidential palace in metro Manila, Philippines July 17, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Martin Petty

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Monday to fast-track new legislation for autonomy in the country’s most volatile region, advancing a protracted process to end decades of rebellion and thwart rising Islamist militancy.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) submitted to Duterte on Monday is the culmination of a rocky 20-year peace process between the government of the predominantly Christian Philippines and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

It aims to turn predominantly Muslim parts of the southern island of Mindanao into an autonomous region with its own executive, legislature and fiscal powers.

“May I say to you my brothers … I will support and hasten this instrument as it goes to the legislature,” Duterte said in a ceremony for the handover of the bill, drawing loud applause.

“There will be no objections of the provisions of all that is consistent with the constitution and aspirations of the Moro people.”

Passage of the bill would be a major achievement for Duterte, who was a mayor in a Mindanao city for 22 years and has made peace deals with separatists and Marxist rebels a priority for his year-old government.

The bill’s submission comes at a critical time for the Philippines, as fears grow that militants allied with Islamic State have exploited disillusionment over the failure of the previous Congress to pass the law, and have used it to recruit fighters and further a radical agenda.

Rebels inspired by Islamic State have occupied the commercial heart of Marawi City, on Mindanao, through seven weeks of air strikes and battles with government troops that have killed more than 500 people and displaced 260,000, marking the country’s biggest security crisis in years.

DANGEROUS TIMES

“We live in very dangerous times… we watch with utter disgust of the destruction that violent extremism has inflicted in the city of Marawi,” MILF chairman Al Haj Ebrahim Murad said.

“These misguided people have filled the vacuum created by our failure to enact the basic law and (they) feed into the frustration of our people.”

The law, details of which were not immediately available, calls for the creation of a self-administered territory within what the Philippines called Bangsamoro, meaning “Moro nation”, referring to the southern Muslims that Spanish colonialists called “Moros”.

The bill, agreed by a panel of representatives from government, the MILF and religious groups, prescribes an elected legislative assembly, a chief minister, a cabinet, with an agreement to share natural resource revenues, stacked largely in favor of the new Bangsamoro government.

In a recent interview with Reuters in Cotabato City, Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s top peace negotiator, said the hope was for Congress to pass the law and a transition period to start in 2019, with elections in 2022 for an 80-seat assembly.

Iqbal said he feared the Marawi siege could complicate the passage of the law if there was a perception that the MILF and the radical Maute group fighting in Marawi were associated with each other because both hail from the same region.

“Right now we don’t really know the thinking of the people,” he said.

Exclusive: Philippines’ Duterte proposed deal to end city siege, then backed out

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as he delivers a speech during the 70th Philippine Air Force (PAF) anniversary at Clark Air Base in Angeles city north of Manila, Pampanga province, Philippines July 4, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Martin Petty

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte was preparing to make a deal with Islamic State-inspired militants in the days after they laid siege to a southern city, but aborted the plan without explanation, an intermediary involved in the process said.

Agakhan Sharief, a prominent Muslim leader, told Reuters that after a band of Islamist fighters overran parts of Marawi City on May 23 and took hundreds of people hostage, he was approached by a senior Duterte aide to use his connections with the Maute militant group’s leaders to start back-channel talks.

Two other Marawi sources familiar with the matter confirmed the president had worked behind the scenes to hold talks with the Maute brothers, Omarkhayam and Abdullah.

However, the process was halted when Duterte in a May 31 speech declared he “will not talk to terrorists”.

It was not immediately clear what prompted Duterte’s about-face.

“The problem with our president, his mind is changing always,” said Sharief, a cleric who has had roles in various peace agreements on the long-restive southern island of Mindanao. “He announced he will no longer talk to terrorists and that made our negotiations cut.”

Duterte’s top peace adviser and his spokesman did not respond to separate requests for comment.

Despite his tough rhetoric and frequent promises to wipe out militants, Duterte has a reputation as a peace-broker, having dealt with separatist and Marxist rebellions during his 22 years as mayor of Davao City in Mindanao, an island of 22 million with a long history of unrest.

DUTERTE’S BIGGEST CRISIS

The battle for control of Marawi has been the biggest crisis of Duterte’s year-old presidency.

Fighters from the Maute group and others loyal to Islamic State have been holed up in the commercial district of the town through more than 40 days of air strikes, artillery bombardments and fierce street clashes with troops.

More than 400 people have been killed, including 337 militants, 85 members of the security forces, and 44 civilians. Some 260,000 residents have been displaced by a siege that has fanned regional fears that Islamic State is trying to establish a stronghold in Southeast Asia.

Marawi Mayor Majul Usman Gandamra confirmed that back-channel talks did start but said he was not privy to details.

He told Reuters the process failed because the rebels did not show good faith or reduce the intensity of attacks on government forces after Duterte offered them an olive branch.

“There was a window of opportunity,” he said. “But there was no show of sincerity.”

REBELS ‘CONVINCED’

Sharief, known locally as “Bin Laden” due to his resemblance to the late al Qaeda leader, would not reveal the identity of Duterte’s aide, whom he said was confidentially assigned to set up a meeting with the Maute clan.

He said the aide agreed that Sharief would accompany the Maute brothers’ influential mother, Farhana, by helicopter to meet Duterte in nearby Cagayan De Oro or Davao City.

Sharief said her sons who requested she represent them in talks with Duterte.

“He (Duterte’s aide) prepared everything that I needed. I told him that I need a chopper to get the mother of the Maute brothers to bring her to the president. He prepared that.”

“I called the Maute brothers and their mother … I told them, I convinced them.”

Sharief said the president was prepared to offer the Maute clan implementation of Sharia law in their hometown, Butig, if he achieves his goal of establishing a federal system in the Philippines.

The talks with the Maute group did not go ahead and the mother was arrested on June 9 elsewhere in the same province as Marawi. The Maute brothers’ father, Cayamora Maute, was apprehended three days earlier in Davao City.

The cleric said that the rebels would have taken Duterte’s deal to end the siege.

“They agreed, they supported this,” said Sharief, who last met with Abdullah Maute on June 25, when he led a group of emissaries into the heart of Marawi to free some hostages during the Eid al-Fitr Islamic holiday.

Sharief said he was against the radical ideology of Islamic State but reluctant to speak out against the Maute clan because he still hoped he could convince them to end the siege.

“I am a peacemaker,” he said. “I cannot negotiate anymore if I talk against them.”

(For a graphic on the battle for Marawi, click http://tmsnrt.rs/2sqmHDf)

(Additional reporting by Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Editing by John Chalmers and Bill Tarrant)

Duterte resurfaces after rest, says battle with militants winding down

Government soldiers conduct a foot patrol after a security inspection, as they continue their assault against insurgents from the Maute group, who have taken over large parts of Marawi City, Philippines June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

MANILA (Reuters) – President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines, who had avoided public appearances for nearly a week to recover from what spokesmen described as fatigue, said on Saturday that a battle with Islamist militants in Marawi City was winding down, but the insurgency had deep roots.

More than 300 people have been killed in the southern town, where troops have been fighting for over three weeks to oust militants who have sworn allegiance to Islamic State.

“The fighting is going on, but it’s winding down,” Duterte said while addressing soldiers in the town of Butuan, an event covered live on television.

But he added: “It’s difficult to fight those who are willing to die. They have corrupted the name of God in the form of religion to kill many innocent people, for nothing.”

The presence of fighters from the Middle East had made it a brutal conflict, Duterte said.

Duterte had not attended any public event since last Sunday, with his spokesmen saying the president was tired and resting. He did not appear at any function to mark the Philippines’ independence day last Monday, which raised eyebrows.

He appeared to be fine on Saturday, and attended two functions in the southern region of Mindanao, both near his hometown Davao.

“Do not worry,” he told reporters after the event with the soldiers. “My state of health is immaterial. There is the vice president who will take over.”

Residents who evacuated their homes to avoid the intense fighting between government troops and insurgents from the Maute group, are seen inside the evacuation center in Saguiaran Village at Lanao Del Sur, Philippines June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

Residents who evacuated their homes to avoid the intense fighting between government troops and insurgents from the Maute group, are seen inside the evacuation center in Saguiaran Village at Lanao Del Sur, Philippines June 17, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

(Reporting by Enrico Dela Cruz; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Andrew Bolton)

Philippines urges Islamist rebels to surrender as battle enters eighth day

A Philippine Marine fires a weapon towards the stronghold of Maute group in Marawi City in southern Philippines May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Erik De Castro

By Tom Allard

MARAWI, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippine military urged Islamist militants occupying a southern city to turn themselves in on Tuesday, the eighth day of a push by security forces using armored vehicles and firing rockets from helicopters to eliminate the gunmen.

The government says it is close to retaking Marawi from the Islamic State-linked Maute group, which seized parts of the city after a failed attempt by security forces to capture Isnilon Hapilon, the militants’ so-called emir of Southeast Asia.

“We call on the remaining terrorists to surrender while there is an opportunity,” a military spokesman, Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla, told reporters.

As helicopters circled the lakeside city where smoke billowed out of some buildings, troops cleared rebel positions amid explosions and automatic gunfire, moving house by house and street by street.

More than 100 people have been killed, most of them militants, according to the military, and most of the city’s residents have fled.

A Catholic priest held captive by the militants with a dozen other civilians appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to consider their plight and stop the military operation.

Father Teresito “Chito” Soganub, vicar general of Marawi City, and the others were abducted in a cathedral last week.

“We are asking your help to please give what your enemies are asking for,” the priest said on a video clip shown on a Telegram channel used by Islamic State.

“We still want to live for another day, a month and a few years, please consider us Mr President,” he said.

A politician involved in efforts to evacuate residents, Zia Alonto Adiong, said authorities had cleared 85 percent of the city but reclaiming the rest would be a challenge because they were dense urban areas with trapped civilians.

“There’s an intensifying military operation that’s going on,” Adiong told a media briefing.

Though most people have left, thousands are stranded, worried they could be intercepted by militants if they tried to flee.

‘LIVE ANOTHER DAY’

Martin Thalmann, deputy head of delegation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said he tried, but failed to convince Islamic State affiliated insurgents and government forces to halt the violence so it can deliver aid.

“It’s so intense, it’s not possible,” Thalmann told reporters, referring to the fighting.

“There’s still a lot of people in there and of course it’s a concern that they suffer under this shelling and we wonder if all the precautions are taken.”

Air strikes were aimed at “specific targets of resistance to protect our troops and hasten clearing of the city”, Padilla said, adding that “collateral damage” was being prevented.

Nearly 85,000 displaced people are staying in 38 shelter areas outside Marawi.

Leaders of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a separatist Muslim guerrilla group that has been in talks with the government, said they had agreed to help distribute aid after they met the president for talks.

Duterte had appealed on the weekend to rebel forces to become “soldiers of the republic” and unite to defeat the hardline Maute and allied Abu Sayyaf groups.

The Maute’s ability to fight for so long will add to fears that Islamic State’s ideology is spreading in the southern Philippines and it could become a haven for militants from Southeast Asia and beyond.

Malaysians and Indonesians were among the rebels killed.

The government believes the Maute carried out their assault before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan to capture the attention of Islamic State and earn recognition as a regional affiliate.

In the video footage, the captured priest was standing on a deserted street with ruins around him and the sound of gunfire in the background.

“They simply are not asking for anything, just to withdraw your forces … and to stop the air strikes, your air attacks, and stop the cannons,” Soganub said.

Marawi Bishop Edwin dela Pena confirmed to Reuters that it was Soganub in the video but declined to comment any further.

Soganub, wearing a black shirt and trousers, said the militants had the right to practice their faith and enforce Islamic laws in the city.

Padilla said the military was aware of the video.

“This is pure propaganda. The Maute group is using this to stop our clearing operations,” Padilla said.

Padilla said he was confident the militants would not harm the priest because they wanted to use him to gain concessions.

(Additional reporting by Erik de Castro in MARAWI and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Writing by Karen Lema; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Philippine president urges IS-linked rebels to halt siege, start talks

Residents carrying belongings walk past a mosque towards an evacuation center after government troops continued an assault on fighters from the Maute group who have taken over large parts of Marawi city, southern Philippines May 26, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Tom Allard

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte appealed to Islamist militants on Friday to abandon hostilities and start dialogue in an effort to end their bloody occupation of a southern city that experts called a major blow to regional security.

Duterte said the presence of foreign fighters in street battles that have raged since Tuesday in Marawi City was proof that Islamic State had gained a foothold on the restive island of Mindanao, but there was still a chance for peace.

“You can say that the ISIS is here already,” Duterte told soldiers in nearby Iligan City, referring to Islamic State.

“My message mainly to the terrorists on the other side is we can still solve this through dialogue. And if you cannot be convinced to stop fighting, so be it. Let’s just fight.”

Special forces commandoes were deployed to drive out the remaining 20 to 30 Maute group rebels holed-up in Marawi but encountered heavy resistance on Friday. The army said 11 soldiers and 31 militants have been killed.

Fighting erupted on Tuesday after a bungled raid by security forces on a Maute hideout, which spiraled into chaos, with gunmen seizing bridges, roads and buildings and taking Christians hostage. Duterte responded by declaring martial law throughout his native island of Mindanao.

Rohan Gunaratna, a Singapore-based security expert, said the siege was a wake-up call for the Philippines.

“Islamic State capturing a major city in the Philippines is a very significant blow to the security and stability of this region,” he said.

“The Filipinos need to get their act together … They must understand the truth that IS ideology took hold in their country. The local groups have transformed.”

Malaysians, Indonesians and other foreigners were among the guerrillas killed on Thursday, which the government said demonstrated how the Philippines could become a haven for overseas militants.

The White House on Thursday said it backed the Philippine fight against “cowardly terrorists”.

Duterte has warned of “contamination” by Islamic State, exploiting the poverty, lawlessness and porous borders of predominantly Muslim Mindanao island to establish a base for radicals from Southeast Asia and beyond.

He has pleaded with political and Islamic leaders to keep foreign and local militants at bay. Months of air and ground offensives in Mindanao have not dented their resolve.

FOREIGN INVASION

“What’s happening in Mindanao is no longer a rebellion of Filipino citizens,” Solicitor General Jose Calida told reporters in explaining why martial law was imposed.

“It has transmogrified into invasion by foreign terrorists, who heeded the call of the ISIS to go to the Philippines if they find difficulty in going to Iraq and Syria.”

Most of Marawi’s 200,000 inhabitants fled after the gunmen ran amok on Tuesday, seizing and torching buildings, freeing militants from jails and taking a priest and churchgoers hostage at the city’s cathedral.Duterte has dealt with separatist unrest during his 22 years as mayor in Mindanao but the Maute’s rise and signs that it has ties to another group, the Abu Sayyaf, present one of the biggest challenges of a presidency won on promises to fight drugs and lawlessness.

Philippine intelligence indicates the two groups from different parts of Mindanao are connected, through Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of a radical faction of Abu Sayyaf.

Abu Sayyaf has a track record of banditry, piracy and violence, while the lesser-known Maute group has proven itself a fierce battlefield opponent for the military, able to sustain air and artillery bombardments and regroup after heavy losses.

Hapilon was the target of Tuesday’s botched raid and Duterte said Islamic State in the Middle East had anointed him as its man in the Philippines, and Hapilon was revered as its leader.

Military chief General Eduardo Ano said the fierce resistance by the Maute in Marawi was to protect Hapilon, who was in poor condition after being wounded in a January air strike.

“If we capture him, all the better. But if he fights back we have to do what is necessary,” he told reporters.

Convoys of vehicles packed with evacuees and protected by soldiers streamed into Iligan. Mark Angelou Siega, a Christian, described how students fled their campus.

“We were so scared and so were our Muslim brothers and sisters. We were sure they would get to us,” he said.

“These terrorists are not real Muslims.”

Calida said the Maute group and Islamic State were radicalizing young Muslims and the government was not the only target of their aggression.

“People they consider as infidels, whether Christians or Muslims, are also targets,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in DAVAO CITY, Kanupriya Kapoor in SINGAPORE, Romeo Ranoco in MARAWI CITY and Enrico dela Cruz and Manolo Serapio Jr in MANILA; Writing by Martin Petty)

Trump calls North Korea leader ‘madman’ who cannot be let on the loose: transcript

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives at the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport in Rome, Italy, May 23, 2017. REUTERS/Remo Casilli

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a call last month with the Philippines’ president, U.S. President Donald Trump described North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un as a “madman with nuclear weapons” who could not be let on the loose, according to a leaked Philippine transcript of their call.

Trump told Duterte in the April 29 call that the United States would “take care of North Korea,” and had a lot of firepower in the region, although it did not want to use it, according to a transcript of their conversation published by the Washington Post and the investigative news site The Intercept.

The document included a “confidential” cover sheet from the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

A senior U.S. official said the Trump administration did not dispute the accuracy of the transcript and declined to comment further.

Trump requested Duterte’s help in impressing on China, North Korea’s neighbor and only major ally, the need for it to help rein in Kim, the transcript showed.

“We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that,” Trump said. “We have a lot of firepower, more than he has, times 20, but we don’t want to use it.”

The U.S. president told Duterte that Washington had sent two nuclear submarines to waters off the Korean peninsula, comments likely to raise further questions about his handling of sensitive information after U.S. officials said Trump discussed intelligence about Islamic State with Russian officials this month.

“We have two submarines – the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all,” Trump said.

The Philippines foreign ministry said earlier in a statement that it had no comment on news reports about the leaked transcript.

But it said that under Philippine law there was “criminal and civil liability attached to the hacking, unauthorized disclosure and use of illegally or inadvertently obtained confidential government documents.”

The ministry said it valued the need for transparency, but the release of some information could affect national security and regional stability. “As such, we appeal to the sense of responsibility and patriotism of all concerned,” it added.

North Korea has vowed to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland, presenting Trump with perhaps his biggest foreign policy challenge.

It has conducted dozens of missile launches and two nuclear bomb tests since the start of last year.

Trump has said “a major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible and that all options are on the table, but his administration says it wants to resolve the crisis diplomatically with the aid of tougher sanctions.

On May 1, just after the call with Duterte, Trump said he would be “honored” to meet Kim Jong Un, under the right conditions.

According to the transcript, Trump said he hoped China would act to solve the North Korea problem.

“They really have the means because a great degree of their stuff comes through China,” Trump said. “They (Beijing) are doing certain things, like not accepting calls. But if China doesn’t do it, we will do it,” Trump said, having asked Duterte if he thought China had influence over Kim.

Trump said Kim had the “powder” – an apparent reference to North Korea’s nuclear capability – “but he doesn’t have the delivery system.”

“All his rockets are crashing. That’s the good news. But eventually when he gets that delivery system,” Trump said without finishing his sentence.

While North Korea missile tests have frequently failed, Trump and Duterte spoke before an apparently successful test of a long-range missile this month.

Western experts say that test appeared to have advanced North Korea’s aim of developing a missile capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, although the capability was probably still several years away.

The director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, General Vincent Stewart, said on Tuesday that if left unchecked, North Korea was on an “inevitable” path to obtaining a nuclear-armed missile capable of striking the United States.

In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Carl Vinson to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it joined the Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea in April.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Matt Spetalnick in WASHINGTON and Karen Lema in MANILA; editing by Nick Macfie and Jonathan Oatis)

Philippines deploys top commandoes, attack helicopters to retake city from Islamist rebels

Military vehicles carrying government troops drive along a main highway of Pantar town, Lanao Del Norte, as they travel to reinforce Marawi city, southern Philippines May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Romeo Ranoco and Roli Ng

MARAWI CITY, Philippines (Reuters) – The Philippines deployed attack helicopters and special forces to drive out Islamic State-linked rebels holed up in a besieged southern city on Thursday, as efforts to take back control met heavy resistance.

Ground troops hid behind walls and armored vehicles and exchanged volleys of gunfire with Maute group fighters, firing into elevated positions occupied by militants who have held Marawi City on Mindanao island for two days.

Helicopters circled the city, peppering Maute positions with machine gun fire to try to force them from a bridge vital to retaking Marawi, a mainly Muslim city of 200,000 where fighters had torched and seized a school, a jail, a cathedral, and took more than a dozen hostages.

“We’re confronting maybe 30 to 40 remaining from the local terrorist group,” said Jo-Ar Herrera, spokesman for the military’s First Infantry Regiment.

“The military is conducting precise, surgical operations to flush them out … The situation is very fluid and movements are dynamic because we wanted to out-step and outmaneuver them.”

The battles with the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, started on Tuesday afternoon during a failed raid by security forces on one of the group’s hideouts, which spiraled into chaos.

The turmoil was the final straw for President Rodrigo Duterte, who delivered on his threat to impose martial law on Mindanao, the country’s second-largest island, to stop the spread of radical Islam.

Islamic State claimed responsibility late on Wednesday for Maute’s activities via its Amaq news agency.

At least 21 people – seven soldiers, 13 rebels and a civilian – have been killed and religious leaders say militants were using Christians taken hostage during the fighting as human shields.

The White House condemned the Maute group as “cowardly terrorists” and said in a statement the United States was a proud ally of the Philippines and would continue to support its fight against extremism.

GETTING OUT

Hundreds of civilians, including children, were sheltering in a military camp in Marawi City as troops helped clear the few remaining people from streets where smoke lingered in the air.

“We’re leaving,” said a resident named Edith, walking along a rundown street carrying a small suitcase.

“We can no longer take it and we need to save our children.”

Sultan Haji Ismael Demasala said he was staying and would leave his fate in God’s hands.

“If Allah wills it so, then we cannot stop it,” he said, pointing his finger in the air.

Hostilities eased overnight but flared late on Thursday morning when troops started their clearing operations.

A major obstacle was an armored vehicle parked across a bridge, which Maute fighters were using for cover, a Reuters journalist said.

Marawi is in Lanao del Sur province, a stronghold of the Maute, a fierce, but little-known group that has been a tricky opponent for the military.

Tuesday’s raid was aimed at capturing Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of radical faction of another militant group, the Abu Sayyaf. The government says Hapilon is a point man for Islamic State and has been collaborating with the Maute group.

“Based on our intelligence, Isnilon Hapilon is still in the city,” Herrera said.

The Maute group’s rise is a source of concern for Mindanao native Duterte, who is familiar with Muslim separatist unrest but alarmed by the prospect of rebels helping Islamic State to recruit and establish a presence in the volatile region of 22 million people.

Duterte has threatened harsh measures and said martial law would remain be maintained for as long as it took to restore order.

The president was due to hold a cabinet meeting on Thursday in Davao, his home city and the biggest on Mindanao.

Security was stepped up in Davao, with more military checkpoints and some businesses sending staff home during daylight hours. Residents were urged to stay vigilant.

In the city where Duterte was mayor for 22 years, and enjoys a cult-like following, residents were supportive of martial law.

“It’s not a hassle. It is good because it prevents harmful events,” said manicurist Zoraida Jakosalem Himaya.

“He is like a father telling his children what to do.”

(Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in DAVAO CITY and Enrico Dela Cruz and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Writing by Martin Petty)

Trump tells Duterte of two U.S. nuclear subs in Korean waters: NYT

FILE PHOTO: The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Michigan arrives for a regularly scheduled port visit while conducting routine patrols throughout the Western Pacific in Busan, South Korea, April 24, 2017. Jermaine Ralliford/Courtesy U.S. Navy/Handout via REUTERS

MANILA (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump told his Philippine counterpart that Washington has sent two nuclear submarines to waters off the Korean peninsula, the New York Times said, comments likely to raise questions about his handling of sensitive information.

Trump has said “a major, major conflict” with North Korea is possible because of its nuclear and missile programs and that all options are on the table but that he wants to resolve the crisis diplomatically.

North Korea has vowed to develop a missile mounted with a nuclear warhead that can strike the mainland United States, saying the program is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

Trump told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte Washington had “a lot of firepower over there”, according to the New York Times, which quoted a transcript of an April 29 call between the two.

“We have two submarines — the best in the world. We have two nuclear submarines, not that we want to use them at all,” the newspaper quoted Trump as telling Duterte, based on the transcript.

The report was based on a Philippine transcript of the call that was circulated on Tuesday under a “confidential” cover sheet by the Americas division of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

In a show of force, the United States has sent the nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier to waters off the Korean peninsula, where it joined the USS Michigan, a nuclear submarine that docked in South Korea in late April.

According to the Times, a senior Trump administration official in Washington, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the call and insisted on anonymity, confirmed the transcript was an accurate representation of the call between the two leaders.

U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, have said Trump discussed intelligence about Islamic State with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at talks in the Oval Office this month, raising questions about Trump’s handling of secrets.

Trump also praised Duterte for doing an “unbelievable job on the drug problem”, the New York Times reported, a subject that has drawn much criticism in the West.

Almost 9,000 people, many small-time users and dealers, have been killed in the Philippines since Duterte took office on June 30. Police say about one-third of the victims were shot by officers in self-defense during legitimate operations.

(Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Defiant Duterte threatens harsh measures as thousands flee Islamic State

A government troop stands on guard checking vehicles evacuating residents from their hometown of Marawi city in southern Philippines, as it drives past a military checkpoint in Pantar town, Lanao Del Norte, Philippines May 24, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

By Romeo Ranoco

PANTAR, Philippines (Reuters) – Thousands of civilians fled fighting in the Philippines on Wednesday as troops sought to contain Islamic State-linked militants who took over large parts of a city, set building ablaze and captured a Catholic priest and other Christians.

President Rodrigo Duterte said he had no choice but to declare martial law on his native island of Mindanao following a failed raid by soldiers on Tuesday on a hideout of the Maute militant group, which triggered clashes and chaos across the largely Muslim city of Marawi.

Duterte said Islamic State could not be allowed to gain a foothold in the Christian-majority Philippines and he would do whatever it took to rebuff extremists from the Maute group and the allied Abu Sayyaf, even if it meant many would die.

“Anyone now holding a gun, confronting government with violence, my orders are spare no one, let us solve the problems of Mindanao once and for all. Do not force my hands into it,” said Duterte, who cut short his visit to Russia to return to Manila.

“If I think you should die, you will die. If you fight us you will die. If there’s an open defiance you will die and if it means many people dying, so be it. That’s how it is.”

Soldiers and rebels set up checkpoints and roadblocks on routes in and out of Marawi as a stream of men, women and children fled. Long queues of pickup trucks and jeeps crammed full of people and loaded with belongings snaked on roads leading into nearby towns.

Battles abated on Wednesday as the military tried to isolate Maute fighters while awaiting reinforcements to the city of 200,000 people, which an official described as a ghost town. Maute snipers and booby traps were hampering operations, which could last three more days, the military said.

Thirteen militants and seven members of the security forces have so far been killed and 33 troops wounded in the fighting, according to the military.

Duterte said martial law would mean checkpoints, arrests and searches without warrant, and it would go on for as long as it took to restore order, but he would not tolerate abuses of power by police or soldiers.

He said he would consider some legal measures in the central Visayas region next to Mindanao to facilitate arrests, and might even declare martial law nationwide if he felt extremists had proliferated. He was also furious that the Maute group had hoisted the flag of Islamic State.

EXTREMISTS HAVE ARRIVED

“I made a projection, not a prediction, that one of these days the hardest things to deal with would be the arrival of ISIS in our country,” Duterte said, referring to Islamic State.

“The government must put an end to this. I cannot gamble with ISIS because they are everywhere.”

The military has not explained how the raid on an apartment hideout went so badly wrong and resulted in Maute gunmen going on the rampage and taking over roads, bridges, buildings and a hospital.

Duterte said he had heard reports that a police chief in Marawi may have been beheaded by the Maute.

The armed forces said it was on top of the situation but residents who fled told a different story.

“The city is still under the control of the armed group. They are all over the main roads and two bridges leading to Marawi,” student Rabani Mautum told Reuters in Pantar town, about 16 km (10 miles) from Marawi.

Duterte said martial law in Mindanao, which would apply for 60 days initially, would be like that of the 1970s rule of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, remembered by many Filipinos as one of the darkest chapters of recent history. He said Marcos’ use of martial law was “very good”.

The Catholic church said rebels had taken hostage Father Chito Suganob, a priest at Marawi’s Cathedral of Our Lady Help of Christians, and several churchgoers.

“They have threatened to kill the hostages if the government forces unleashed against them are not recalled,” said Father Socrates Villegas, president of Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

“We beg every Filipino to pray fervently.”

Tuesday’s raid was aimed at capturing Isnilon Hapilon, a leader of the Abu Sayyaf group notorious for piracy, banditry and for kidnapping and beheading Westerners.

The Maute and Abu Sayyaf have pledged allegiance to Islamic State and have proved fierce opponents for the military.

Critics chided Duterte for what they saw as an overreaction in declaring martial law on an island the size of South Korea and the second biggest in the Philippines, after an incident in one city.

The National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, a group of human rights attorneys, called it “a sledgehammer, knee-jerk reaction” that would “open the flood gates for unbridled human rights violations”.

(Additional reporting by Karen Lema, Enrico dela Cruz, Manuel Mogato in Manila; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Duterte says China’s Xi threatened war if Philippines drills for oil

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in Beijing. REUTERS/Etienne Oliveau/Pool

By Manuel Mogato

MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday Chinese counterpart China Xi Jinping had warned him there would be war if Manila tried to enforce an arbitration ruling and drill for oil in a disputed part of the South China Sea.

In remarks that could infuriate China, Duterte hit back at domestic critics who said he has gone soft on Beijing by refusing to push it to comply with an award last year by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague, which ruled largely in favor of the Philippines.

Duterte said he discussed it with Xi when the two met in Beijing on Monday, and got a firm, but friendly warning.

“We intend to drill oil there, if it’s yours, well, that’s your view, but my view is, I can drill the oil, if there is some inside the bowels of the earth because it is ours,” Duterte said in a speech, recalling his conversation with Xi.

“His response to me, ‘we’re friends, we don’t want to quarrel with you, we want to maintain the presence of warm relationship, but if you force the issue, we’ll go to war.”

Duterte has long expressed his admiration for Xi and said he would raise the arbitration ruling with him eventually, but needed first to strengthen relations between the two countries, which the Philippines is hoping will yield billions of dollars in Chinese loans and infrastructure investments.

The Hague award clarifies Philippine sovereign rights in its 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone to access offshore oil and gas fields, including the Reed Bank, 85 nautical miles off its coast.

It also invalidated China’s nine-dash line claim on its maps denoting sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

Duterte has a reputation for his candid, at times incendiary, remarks and his office typically backpeddles on his behalf and blames the media for distorting his most controversial comments.

Duterte recalled the same story about his discussion with Xi on oil exploration in a recorded television show aired moments after the speech.

He said Xi told him “do not touch it”.

He said Xi had promised that the arbitration ruling would be discussed in future, but not now.

Duterte said China did not want to bring up the arbitral ruling at a time when other claimant countries, like Vietnam, might also decide to file cases against it at the arbitration tribunal.

It was not the first time the firebrand leader has publicly discussed the content of private meetings with other world leaders.

His remarks came the same day that China and the Philippines held their first session in a two-way consultation process on the South China Sea.

They exchanged views on “the importance of appropriately handling concerns, incidents and disputes involving the South China Sea”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that gave few details.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by Martin Petty)