The Philippine Center For Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) has named former Rappler reporter and book author Carmela Fonbuena as its next executive editor, reports Rappler.

“We are very pleased that Carmela has decided to be at the helm of PCIJ at a time when journalism in the Philippines and elsewhere is facing challenges on multiple fronts,” the PCIJ said in a statement.

The transition comes at a time when freedom of the press is under siege in the Philippines by the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, whose allies have sought to bring down independent news outlets critical of his administration.

• READ MORE: PMC focuses on Asia-Pacific ‘journalism under duress’ for 10th birthday event

Fonbuena succeeds Malou Mangahas, who led the PCIJ for 11 years, visited New Zealand as guest speaker of the Pacific Media Centre during its 10th anniversary celebration, and retired in early 2020.

Floreen Simon, who stood in as acting executive director during the transition, will become the deputy executive director while still heading PCIJ’s training desk.

Fonbuena’s work
Fonbuena has been a journalist for 17 years, and has co-written four books on Philippine elections and government contracting.

She recently launched a book on the Marawi siege on Mindanao Island, which she covered on the ground in 2017.

Fonbuena was a senior reporter for Rappler from 2011 to 2018 and was the head researcher of GMA’s Bawal ang Pasaway public affairs programme. Prior, she worked as a researcher for the investigative news magazine, Newsbreak.

Recently, she has been contributing in-depth pieces for the British news website, The Guardian.

She earned an MA in political communication at Cardiff University in the United Kingdom as a Chevening scholar, and is a graduate of journalism from the University of the Philippines in Diliman.

Asia Pacific Report republishes Rappler articles with permission.

Philippine state security forces have repeatedly blocked members of a fact-finding mission investigating human rights violations against peasant farmers and indigenous Lumads in Mindanao.

Since their arrival at the airports in Davao City, Lagindinangan and Butuan City yesterday, all the way to highly-militarised peasant and Lumad communities in Southern Mindanao, Northern Mindanao and the Caraga region, members of the three-team mission have been subjected to different forms of harassment and intimidation.

Suspected soldiers took pictures of the Caraga team members and “welcomed” them with a banner that read “Just do it right” upon their arrival at the airport in Butuan City.

The Southern Mindanao team members saw streamers in Tagum City that read, “OUT NOW IFFSM [International fact-finding Mission]; WE WANT PEACE.”

READ MORE: Manila brands volunteer teachers as ‘terrorists’, say Lumad advocates

Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao said the military was behind the streamers.

“The AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] has no credibility in talking peace. We thus revise the slogan; instead it should read: AFP OUT NOW; WE WANT PEACE,” he said.

The Northern Mindanao mission team was blocked three times by police and military forces from the airport in Lagindingan to Cagayan de Oro.

From the city to the mission site in Patpat village in Malaybalay, the team was blocked eight more times.

‘No wonder military don’t want us’
Rafael Mariano, former Agrarian Reform Secretary and head of the Northern Mindanao team, said, “We came here for a very urgent reason, we came here to verify mounting reports of rights abuses against peasant and Lumad communities perpetrated allegedly by military elements.

“No wonder the military people don’t want us here.”

President Rodrigo Duterte placed the whole island under martial law on May 24, 2017, after an attack in Marawi City.

Citing “continued threat of terrorism and rebellion,” Duterte asked Congress to extend martial law until December this year. Duterte’s supporters in Congress railroaded the extension.

Seventy-one full battalions of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) are operating in Mindanao, of which 41 are focused on counterinsurgency operations.

The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) said at least 65 percent of the AFP’s combat troops are concentrated in Mindanao, where large-scale foreign plantations and mining concessions are to be found.

Human rights alliance Karapatan documented 126 victims of political killings as of December 2017, of whom 110 were farmers mostly coming from Mindanao.

In Southern Mindanao alone, 63 cases of extrajudicial killings have been recorded,

‘Bulldozing their way into vast lands’
“The unabated militarisation and Martial Law itself in Mindanao must be understood as a means for government, big landlords, oligarchs and multinational corporations to further bulldoze their way into the vast lands and resources of the island,” Mariano said.

“This is not the way to address the roots of the armed conflict. This is not the way to a just and lasting peace.”

The teams also reported to have been closely tailed by several vehicles from the airport to the orientation sites and to the villages where interviews with victims victims were to be held.

Undeterred, the teams were able to finally proceed to their respective mission areas.

“We managed to get past all the checkpoints so far after seemingly endless negotiations with the state forces but this is only the first day and the day is still long and so we must remain vigilant throughout the rest of the day and the entire duration of the three-day mission,” Mariano said.

Former congressmen Satur Ocampo and Fernando Hicap, and incumbent representatives of the Makabayan bloc, are among the delegates of the International Fact-Finding Mission to Defend Filipino Peasants’ Land and Human Rights Against Militarism and Plunder in Mindanao organised by KMP and the Mindanao for Civil Liberties.

Also joining the mission are the Asian Peasant Coalition, Pesticide Action Network – Asia Pacific, People’s Coalition for Food Sovereignty, Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, International League of Peoples Struggles (ILPS) Commission 6, Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS), Karapatan, and Tanggol Magsasaka.

In the past two weeks, a group of Lumad educators have visited New Zealand to talk about the human rights violations in education as part of the Save Our Schools programme.

Ronalyn V. Olea is a reporter for Butlalat.

• Gallery: Lumad campaigners appeal for NZ support to defend schools
• ‘There is no legal basis to extend martial law in Mindanao’ – petitioners
• Flashback: A cloud over Bukidnon forestry aid project

The five-month battle against terrorists in the southern Marawi City on Mindanao has ended, Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana announced today.

“After 154 days of the siege of Marawi by the Daesh-inspired Maute ISIS group, or after a week since the Commander-in-Chief declared the liberation of Marawi, we now announce the termination of all combat operations in Marawi,” Lorenzana told reporters.

He made the statement at the ASEAN regional security meeting in Clark, Pampanga, reports Rappler.

The announcement comes almost a week after President Rodrigo Duterte announced the “liberation” of Marawi from “terrorist influence” on October 17, during his visit to the war-torn city.

Lorenzana said government security forces – both the armed forces and the police – “nipped the budding infrastructure and defeated terrorism in the Philippines”.

Government forces had been fighting a fierce war with the terrorist Maute Group and a faction of the Abu Sayyaf Group, led by supposed ISIS emir Isnilon Hapilon.

Local government thanks military
Crisis spokesperson Zia Alonto Adiong said the local government was thankful to the military.

“I must not forget to address this message of gratitude to all our troops who have tirelessly fought in the last few months in our city. Our gratitude to our splendid men goes forth from all our hearts in this city and the entire province,” Adiong said in a press conference after Lorenzana’s declaration.

But Adiong said the hard work was just beginning.

“We may allow ourselves to a brief period of rejoicing right now, but let us not forget for a moment the toil and efforts that lie ahead…. We must recognise that the end of the war is only the first step toward building the peace,” Adiong said.

1780 hostages rescued
More than 1000 people have been killed in the war.

In a press conference in Marawi, AFP information chief Colonel Romeo Brawner said that 920 terrorists had been killed, but troops were still trying to recover around 30 to 40 corpses left in the last holdout building.

On the government side, 165 soldiers and cops had been killed in action, Brawner said.

A total of 1780 hostages had been rescued, and 850 firearms were recovered.

In Clark, Lorenzana said that in defeating what he called “thus far the most serious attempt to export violent extremism and radicalism” in the Philippines and the region, “we have contributed to preventing its spread in Asia and give our share of maintaining global peace, stability, and security”.

“While we submit that this tactical and strategic gains will not annihilate the ideology completely, we declare that this achievement is clear manifestation of how our regional cooperation can lead to a decisive advance against the proliferation of terrorism in this part of the world,” he added.

Lorenzana thanked other countries – in particular China, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei, and Singapore – in the battle to liberate the city.

Catalyst for cooperation
“We hope that this operational achievement in Marawi in the Philippines will be the catalyst that shall bring to the core future cooperation and partnerships not only against terrorism but also those that shall defeat other regional and global security threats,” he added.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, commended the troops, including those killed in action, “for their courage, gallantry, and sacrifice”.

“With the liberation of Marawi, our focus now shifts to the enormous and challenging task of rebuilding, reconstruction and rehabilitation of the Islamic city.

“The damage to Marawi’s infrastructure and private properties and the displacement of thousands of residents require the government’s unified and comprehensive effort; thus, we call on all our citizens to come together to move our country forward towards a peaceful, prosperous and secure future,” he said.

• Elite captain killed as battle for Marawi rages on
• More Philippines stories

Heru Kurnia, an Indonesian who joined Islamic State in Syria, is describing watching children kick around the head of someone decapitated by IS militants.

He hadn’t seen the execution but saw a crowd gather at the clock tower in the Syrian city of Raqqa. “People were watching. I went closer, but oh my God, the man was already dead and the body was being treated like that.”

An IS guard left the body there and adults stood by and did nothing while kids treated a human head like a soccer ball. Later Heru’s voice shudders as he spits out: “IS are sadists.”

Heru is among 18 Indonesians who returned in August after reportedly escaping from a living hell that was a world away from the idealised Islamic society IS recruiters spruik online.

One man, Dwi Djoko Wiwoho, recounts IS militants asking him to be informed of when his daughter began menstruating.

“We were told schools would be free there, but once we were there we were asked to marry her,” he says. Heru and Djoko both appear in a slickly-produced video released this week by the Indonesian government’s counter-terrorism unit, BNPT, titled Stories of IS deportees.

Ghastly anecdotes
The government clearly intends the video, with its melodramatic music score and ghastly anecdotes, to convey an unequivocal message – don’t buy the IS hype.

More than 500 Indonesian IS supporters are still believed to be in Syria. Hundreds more have been deported back to Indonesia, returned voluntarily or killed.

Another 30 Indonesians are believed to have fought with IS-linked militants in a much closer theatre of war – Marawi, on the island of Mindanao in the southern Philippines. None have yet returned.

The threat to Indonesia posed by battle-hardened returned fighters, equipped with new skills and radical ideology, has long exercised authorities.

“The thing that would lead to a marked increase in the threat level would be skilled jihadists suddenly being back, circulating in those networks in Indonesia, imparting their skills in bombmaking and operations,” says Australian National University terrorism expert Greg Fealy.

“Also the fact these people would have the prestige of having fought in the battlefield, whether the battlefield is Marawi or whether it is in Syria, they would attract quite a following. So that could be the thing that suddenly gives a dramatic step up in the ability of terrorists to launch attacks. That’s what’s really been the missing factor so far.”

Weak terrorism laws hamstring the government – no current legislation outlaws travelling to join IS or declaring support for the extremist group.

Nobody paid
Fairfax Media has been unable to interview the returnees and verify their accounts. BNPT spokesman Hamidin insisted no one had been paid to provide their video testimonial.

But this is not the first group of Indonesians to return from Syria citing disillusionment with IS.

“Indonesians aren’t high-ranking in the fight in Syria. They come back disillusioned a lot of the time after cleaning toilets, doing crappy jobs,” an intelligence source tells Fairfax Media.

But terrorism analyst Nava Nuraniyah says IS sympathisers mostly cheer about IS on encrypted chat groups on the Telegram app. “On the rare occasion when people complain about things in Syria or have doubts, they are immediately silenced,” she says.

Nuraniyah believes the returnees who feature on the government video are genuine “but it doesn’t necessarily represent the majority of Indonesian fighters or deportees”.

“A lot who choose to remain in Syria still believe in it.”

This is consistent with the experience of C-SAVE Indonesia, a network of civil society organisations addressing violent extremism.

Since January, C-SAVE has been assisting Indonesians deported while trying to join IS in Syria to return to their homes. As of late July they had assisted more than 160 people.

Of these about 90 percent wanted to go back to Syria, according to C-SAVE executive director Mira Kusumarini.

“They want to live under a caliphate, where Islamic sharia is implemented completely,” Kusumarini says.

Government seen as ‘the infidel’
She says many refused to sign a document agreeing to abide by Indonesia’s 1945 Constitution and the pluralist state ideology of Pancasila until police threatened to put them in a cell.

“Deportees regarded the government as the infidel, the enemy. When we tried to engage with the children we couldn’t use the usual technique of singing and clapping hands because that was regarded as satanic.”

In January 2016, multiple explosions near the Sarinah shopping mall in Central Jakarta – including one in a Starbucks cafe – killed eight people, including four civilians.

It was the first terrorist attack in Indonesia to be claimed by IS.

Since then there have been a number of IS-inspired attacks, mostly low-impact suicide bombings targeting police.

But the day after the Marawi battle began in May, two explosions near a bus station in East Jakarta killed five people and an ominous link was revealed to the conflict in the Philippines.

Porous borders with Philippines
The borders between Indonesia and the Philippines are notoriously porous and militants can easily travel by boat between the two countries without passing through immigration.

One of those arrested over the East Jakarta bus stop bombing had helped arrange travel for Indonesians to the Philippines. Another arrested by police chillingly urged Indonesians over messaging app Telegram to “learn from the conquest of Marawi”.

“One possible impact of Marawi is an increased risk of violence in other countries in the region as local groups are inspired or shamed into action by the Philippine fighters,” Jakarta-based terrorism expert Sidney Jones writes in a recent report.

In July a pressure cooker bomb exploded prematurely in a dormitory in Bandung, West Java.

The man accused of assembling it – a 21-year-old meatball seller called Agus Wiguna – had been “obsessed” with fighting with the IS-affiliated group in Marawi, according to police.

He reportedly planned to detonate bombs in a restaurant, coffee shop and church in Bandung before flying to the Philippines.

Other targets possible
“Once the battle for Marawi is over, it is possible that South-east Asian [IS] leaders might encourage Indonesians to go after other targets, including foreigners or foreign institutions – especially if one of them comes back to lead the operations,” Jones writes.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also did not mince his words.

“With the bitter memory of the 2002 Bali bombing, I am keenly alert to the risk that the next mass-casualty attack on Australian victims could well be somewhere in South-east Asia, where [IS] propaganda has galvanised existing networks of extremists and attracted new recruits,” he told a security summit in June.

The latest edition of IA’s glossy online magazine Rumiyah also focuses on the Philippines as IS loses its grip on a swath of Iraq and Syria, with a cover story on “The jihad in East Asia”.

Anggara Suprayogi, one of the 30 Indonesians fighting with IS-linked militants in Marawi, had planned to leave for Syria to fight early this year.

But when he made contact with an Indonesian in Raqqa he was urged to fight in the Philippines instead.

On terrorist wanted list
It fell on the former police chief of Jatiuwung, a district of Tangerang City about 50 kilometres from Jakarta, to tell Anggara’s mother her son was on a terrorist wanted list.

“Of course she was in shock,” Agung Budi Laksono tells Fairfax Media. “What mother wouldn’t be? Any mother whose son secretly went to war that was not a war for his country.”

He says Anggara had been an obedient son who loved his family and was active in the local community.

“If Anggara found a wallet, he would look for the owner’s address, return the wallet and refuse any gift,” Agung says. “That in my eyes is a positive, it’s rare.”

Religion had been everything to him: he had even refused to use banks because charging interest is forbidden under Islam because it is thought to be exploitative.

Anggara was not the first Indonesian who wanted to fight for IS in Syria or Marawi that Agung came across in his year working in Tangerang.

“It exists quite a lot,” he says. “One of the reasons is a limited understanding of jihad.”

Effective anti-terrorist units
What Indonesia has on its side is one of the most effective anti-terrorist police units in the world.

Detachment 88, established in the wake of the 2002 Bali bombings, has foiled multiple terror plots ranging from a plan for a female suicide bomber to blow herself up outside the presidential palace to a proposed attack on the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.

Any attacks that have occurred are followed up almost immediately with a string of arrests.

An intelligence source says despite low technological capacity – there is not one central database of foreign fighters in Indonesia, for example – Detachment 88 is highly skilled at monitoring, infiltrating mosques and intercepting plots.

“Yes, there is growing intolerance and there is inspiration from South-east Asia, but putting aside lone wolf and small attacks most plots are stopped and that is a tick,” the source says. “Australia is probably not doing as well as they are doing.”

The ANU’s Fealy says the sheer number of returnees as IS crumbles in the Middle East, coupled with the conflict in Marawi, has raised the terrorism threat in the region “quite a bit”.

But he says the risk to Indonesia is still “well below” what it was in 2002, when Jemaah Islamiyah was at its height.

“At the time we had people like Azahari Husin and Noordin Top who were master bombmakers teaching dozens of people how to make bombs that kill a lot of people,” Fealy says.

“I think there is the potential to get there very quickly, but I think we are still well below that.”

Jakarta correspondent Jewel Topsfield with reporting by Karuni Rompies and Amilia Rosa. This article has been republished with permission.

By Carmela Fonbuena in Marawi City, Philippines

A captain of the elite Philippine Army Scout Rangers force was killed as he led his men in a major operation in Marawi City at the weekend.

Captain Rommel Sandoval, commander of the 11th Scout Ranger Company, was shot on Sunday as he was trying to rescue one of his men while they were conducting an operation to clear a multiple-storey building in the battle area of the three-month-old siege.

President Rodrigo Duterte paid his last respects to the fallen soldier yesterday at Laguindingan Airport in Cagayan de Oro before the remains of Sandoval and another soldier also killed on Sunday were transported to Manila.

Duterte later proceeded to Marawi City for his fourth visit since the clashes with local terrorists erupted on May 23.

READ MORE: Terror in Mindanao – The Mautes of Marawi

Sandoval, a junior officer, led his men in the assault as the military pushed to liberate Marawi City.

The structure that the military asked the media not to identify served as one of the remaining strongholds of the local terrorists linked to the international terrorist network Islamic State (ISIS).

Sandoval led one of the companies of the Army elite unit that has been among the primary forces deployed in the war.

He celebrated his birthday inside the battle zone last month.

Sandoval belonged to the Philippine Military Academy Class of 2005.

Carmela Fonbuena is a journalist with the Rappler multimedia and citizen journalist website and has been covering the conflict since it started.

• More Philippines stories

Saying the Philippines needs to wage the long, hard fight against terrorism but cannot do it at the expense of rejecting all that it believes in, the lone dissenter in the Supreme Court ruling upholding the legality of martial law in Mindanao turned to Twitter this week to explain his vote.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said: “We all need to fight the long war against terrorism. This needs patience, community participation, precision and a sophisticated strategy that respects rights while at the same time using force decisively at the right time and in the right way.

“The terrorist wins when we suspend all that we believe in. The terrorist wins when we replace social justice with disempowering authoritarianism.”

The Maute Group and other extremists sowing mayhem in Marawi City should be known for what they, terrorists and not rebels with a definable cause, and therefore should be dealt with decisively by state forces – for which, he said, the military and security agencies were fully mandated and equipped to deal with. Martial law was not needed for this, Leonen said.

On Tuesday (July 4), the Supreme Court, voting 11-3-1, upheld the constitutionality of Proclamation 216 imposing martial law in Mindanao for 60 days, to allow the government to quell the Maute Group-led terrorists that laid siege to Marawi City.

Eleven justices upheld the proclamation; three upheld it, but wanted it limited only to Marawi; while one justice – Leonen – dissented.

Parts of Associate Justice Marvic Leonen’s dissenting opinion, as tweeted:
I honour the sacrifices of many by calling our enemy with their proper names: terrorists capable of committing atrocious acts. They are not rebels desirous of a viable political alternative that can be accepted by any of our societies. With their plans disrupted and with their bankrupt fanaticism for a nihilist apocalypse, they are reduced to a fighting force violently trying to escape. They are not a rebel group that can hope to achieve and hold any ground.

History teaches us that to rely on the iron fist of an authoritarian backed up by the police and the military to solve our deep-seated social problems that spawn terrorism is fallacy. The ghost of Marcos’ Martial Law lives within the words of our Constitution and rightly so. That ghost must be exorcised with passion by this Court whenever its resemblance reappears.

Never again should this court allow itself to step aside when the powerful invoke vague powers that feed on fear but could potentially undermine our most cherished rights. Never again should we fall victim to a false narrative that a vague declaration of martial law is good for us no matter the circumstances. We should have the courage to never again clothe authoritarianism in any disguise with the mantle of constitutionality.

We all need to fight the long war against terrorism. This needs patience, community participation, precision and a sophisticated strategy that respects rights while at the same time using force decisively at the right time and in the right way. The terrorist wins when we suspend all that we believe in. The terrorist wins when we replace social justice with disempowering authoritarianism.

We should temper our fears with reason. Otherwise, we succumb to the effects of the weapons of terror. We should dissent – even resist – when offered the farce that Martial Law is necessary because it is only an exclamation point.

For these reasons, I dissent.

Legal powers need
In my view, respondents have failed to show what additional legal powers will be added by Martial Law except perhaps to potentially put on the shoulders of the armed forces of the Philippines the responsibilities and burdens of the entire civilian government over the entire Mindanao region. I know that the Armed Forces of the Philippines to be more professional than this narrative.

With due respect to my colleagues, I cannot join them in their acceptance of the President’s categorisation of the events in Marawi as equivalent to the rebellion mentioned in Article VII Section 18. In conscience, I do not see the situation as providing for the kind of necessity for the imposition of Martial Law in Marawi as well as throughout the entire Philippines.

Rather, I read the situation as amounting to acts of terrorism which should be addressed in a decisive but more precise manner. The military can quell the violence. It can disrupt many of the planned atrocities that may yet to come. It can do so as it had on many occasions in the past with the current legal arsenal that it has.

The words we choose can have violent consequences.

Characterising or labeling events on the basis of the categories that law provides is quintessentially a legal act. It is not a power granted to the President alone even as commander-in-chief. It is the power wielded by this country’s judiciary with finality. Through that power entrusted to us by the sovereign Filipino people, we temper the potentials of force. We ensure the protection of rights which embed our societies values; the same values which the terrorist may want us to deny or destroy.

I acknowledge the hostilities in Marawi and the valiant efforts of our troops to quell the violence. I acknowledge the huge pain and sacrifice suffered by my many of our citizens as they bear the brunt of violent confrontations. I share the suffering of those who, in moments of callous reaction by members of a majority of our society influenced by a postcolonial culture of intolerance, have to live through the stigma of undeserved stereotypes. To be Muslim has never meant complicity with the misguided acts of fanatics who appropriate religion for irrational selfish ends.

We should dissent – even resist – when offered the farce that Martial Law is necessary because it is only an exclamation point.

#dissent

• Full text of lone dissenting opinion
• Lawmakers want report on security

By Mong Palatino in Manila

On 23 May 2017, a group with alleged links to ISIS attacked some parts of Marawi City on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. In response, the government declared martial law in Mindanao to pursue the attackers and prevent the spread of ISIS in other towns.

The clash between the military and the militant group known as Maute forced the mass evacuation of Marawi residents. As of June 7, more than 46,000 families, or 220,000 persons, have been displaced from their homes.

The government said it has provided 33 evacuation centers, but these could only shelter 18,000 people.

After three weeks of being a battle zone, hundreds of houses and other buildings in Marawi were destroyed. The extent of the damage has been revealed with rescuers, residents, and journalists uploading photos and videos of Marawi’s town proper.

The Maute group is blamed for the destruction, but the military is also being held accountable because of its continuous airstrikes. The military claimed it is conducting “surgical bombing” operations, but some residents said the air bombs are being dropped indiscriminately.

Marawi Mayor Majul Gandamra is saddened by the destruction in his city:

I weep for all the civilians who were mercilessly killed, I weep for the lost homes of my people and I weep for the loss of the true essence of Islam in the people who caused all these destructions to our lives and properties.

As of May 30, the government said 19 civilians had been killed by terrorists.

It is ordinary civilians who are enduring the greatest suffering as the crisis continues to drag on. And even if the clashes end soon, rehabilitating Marawi is expected to be a more difficult task because of the destruction caused by the fighting between the military and the militants.

Below are photos showing the situation in Marawi today:

Mong Palatino is a Global Voices correspondent and is a two-term member of the Philippine House of Representatives. He has been blogging since 2004 at mongster’s nest.

• Marawi retrieves bodies in streets amid air strikes

Pacific Media Centre News Desk

The Philippines has suspended the deployment of workers to Qatar after several Gulf states severed ties with Doha.

The administration in Manila is concerned that if there are food shortages in Qatar due to the political “siege”, Filipino workers could be the first to suffer.

Government forces have arrested the father of the Maute brothers — leaders of the urban warfare against the military in Marawi City in Mindanao — and four other individuals in Davao City.

The Supreme Court has set the dates for oral arguments on the petition against martial law in Mindanao on June 13-15.

Malacañang Palace officials insist that President Rodrigo Duterte respects Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and his views on the administration’s foreign policy.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken to Qatar and neighbouring Arab states in efforts to find a solution to the Gulf crisis.

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has begun mobilising its forces — including warships and intelligence operations — in northern parts of Indonesia to anticipate the entrance of the terrorist group Islamic State (IS) into the country amid a continuing siege in the neighboring Philippines by IS-linked militants.

“We are the first to mobilise our warships on patrol from North Maluku to Central Sulawesi. We have also mobilised some warships in Tarakan, North Kalimantan and are cooperating with the Philippine and Malaysian militaries,” said TNI chief General Gatot Nurmantyo at the weekend, as quoted by tempo.co.

A deadly battle between the Philippines army and the Maute terrorist group has been ongoing since last month in the southern Philippine town of Marawi City, on Mindanao Island, raising concerns among Philippines neighbours, including Indonesia and Malaysia.

Apart from warships, General Gatot added, the TNI had also been conducting intelligence operations in several territories near Mindanao, including Morotai Island in North Maluku, as well as other outer islands of Indonesia, reports the Jakarta Post.

“Soldiers from Tarakan [in North Kalimantan] will monitor beaches and illegal ports,” he said. “Of course, we are also cooperating with the police and the locals.”

Recently, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia revealed a plan to launch joint air, naval and ground patrols in the Sulu Sea and areas nearby Mindanao this month.

Pacific Media Watch’s Kendall Hutt spoke with 95bFM’s The Wire host Tess Barnett today about martial law in the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

She says this is worrying for the Asia-Pacific region.

Papua New Guinea and the Micronesian states have significant diasporic Filipino communities.

Hutt talked about what the declaration of martial law in response to urban attacks in Marawi City, means; comparisons with the Marcos dictatorship; and the threat it poses if it continues past the “normal” 60-day period.

Kendall Hutt and colleagues present the weekly radio programme Southern Cross about Pacific issues on 95bFM on Mondays.

In Manila, Opposition lawmakers condemned President Rodrigo Duterte over his apparent rejection of constitutional provisions allowing Congress and the Supreme Court (SC) to assess the martial law declaration in Mindanao, reports Rappler.

“Is the President saying that he’s willing to violate the Constitution? He is on his way to becoming a dictator,” said Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat Jr.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao following clashes between government forces and Maute Group terrorists in Marawi City.

Listen to Kendall here:

By Carmela Fonbuena in Marawi City, Philippines

Philippines police have entered ground zero of military clashes with local terrorist groups on the southern island of Mindanao to finally retrieve dead bodies on the streets.

The military earlier said the terrorists had killed 19 civilians in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.

Among the bodies recovered yesterday were those of three women and a child, said Al Sayyeed Alonto, who joined the retrieval operations in Barangay Basak Malutlut.

READ MORE: 80% of Marawi evacuated, government vows ‘maximum power’

It signals the beginning of attempts by Marawi City to get a semblance of normalcy even as clashes continue for the 6th straight day. The fighting erupted last Tuesday, May 23, prompting President Rodrigo Duterte to declare martial law in the entire Mindanao.

There is division of laboUr, according to the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). The AFP continues operations against the terrorists, police-assisted local government units (LGUs) lead the retrieval of bodies, volunteers rescue families trapped in combat zones, and so on.

“Right now, the LGUs are the ones collecting dead bodies of civilians. Sa amin naka-focus pa rin kami sa (We’re still focusing on) military operations pertaining to clearing and security operations,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Jo-Ar Herrera, military spokesman on the Marawi crisis.

The retrieval operations come after eight bodies were found in a ditch near a security checkpoint on Sunday morning. It is unclear if these eight were included in the military’s count of civilian deaths.

Trapped civilians
Herrera also said more than 200 civilians trapped inside the combat zone have been “rescued” from their homes.

But 2000 others remain trapped in areas controlled by the terrorists, according to Zia Alonto Adiong, spokesman for the Lanao del Sur crisis management committee.

“They have been sending us text messages, calling our hotline, requesting us to send rescue teams but we cannot simply go to areas which are inaccessible to us,” Adiong told Agence France-Presse.

“They want to leave. They are afraid for their safety. Some are running out of food to eat. They fear they will be hit by bullets, by air strikes,” he said.

Surgical air strikes
Air strikes had resumed on Sunday afternoon. The attack choppers could be seen from the provincial capitol.

Herrera said they are surgical attacks targeting fortifications of the local terrorist groups.

“We are still using surgical air strikes dahil mayroon pa rin silang mga (because they still have) fortifications. They are occupying buildings. They are using sniper rifles to inflict casualty on government forces,” he said.

Carmela Fonbuena is a Rappler journalist reporting on the Mindanao conflict.
@carmelafonbuena

• Earlier story — ‘respect human rights’ warning

The Philippines must ensure that human rights are respected and protected, following the President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law yesterday in the southern island of Mindanao, says Amnesty International.

The authorities must also ensure a clear timetable for an end to martial law, which is now for 60 days, but may be extended by Congress.

Rappler reports that Congress is “unlikely” to revoke martial law.

READ MORE: Duterte says martial law due to ISIS threat

Congress, filled with President Duterte’s allies, has no intention of revoking the Chief Executive’s declaration of martial law, says Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, who added that Congress need not convene as they have no plans of withdrawing the proclamation.

“We have no intentions of revoking, therefore we need not meet jointly. Wala akong alam (I am not aware) of any intentions to revoke,” Sotto said yesterday in a text message.

Sotto said it was also the same view during the senators’ caucus yesterday.

President Duterte declared martial law in the Philippines island of Mindanao on Tuesday after fighting escalated in Marawi City between government forces and the rebel Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to the so-called Islamic State (IS).

Formed alliance
The group has reportedly formed an alliance with Abu Sayaff leader Isnilon Hapilon, who is also said to be the IS leader of in the Philippines.

Amnesty International said in a statement today that it is gravely concerned that the President had since used his powers to declare a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

“The writ of habeas corpus requires a person to be brought before a judge or court especially to secure their release, unless lawful grounds are shown for their detention,” the Amnesty statement said.

“This right is an essential safeguard against arbitrary deprivation of liberty, which under international human rights law is non-derogable, that is, it cannot be denied even in times of emergency.

“President Duterte must therefore repeal this suspension immediately.”

Under international human rights law, including treaties which the Philippines was a party to, the scope of martial law must be limited to the extent strictly required by the exigencies of the situation, said the Amnesty International statement.

This requirement related to the duration, geographical scope and any measures of derogation resorted to because of the emergency.

Call for restraint
Amnesty International also called on security forces to show utmost restraint and fully respect the country’s obligations under international human rights law.

“A state of martial law does not suspend other key human rights, including the right to life, the prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, and the right to a fair trial,” Amnesty said

“Further, the authorities, including army commanders, must make it clear that military personnel of all ranks will not be exempted from prosecution for human rights violations committed when carrying out their duties.”

In Auckland tonight, Amnesty International Philippines campaigns manager Wilnor Papa said that over the years his organisation had expressed concerns over impunity for violations of international human rights law by Philippine security forces as well as human rights abuses by paramilitaries and militia, in particular in Mindanao.

He addressed a lively discussion about the country’s “war on drugs”, human rights violations and the developments on Mindanao this week.

The discussion themed “On the Frontline” at the University of Auckland was organised by the NZ Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice at the Auckland Law School, the AUT Law School and Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand.

During the decade-long imposition of martial law by former President Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s, there were tens of thousands of victims of human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

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• More background