Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is looking to extend military control over the country’s volatile southern provinces over fears that Islamic State-linked militant groups are poised for another attempt to overrun the battle-scarred region.
Mr. Duterte is seeking legislative support for the move that would put the embattled southern Philippine province of Mindanao, a long-time hotbed for extremist activity and home to a majority of the country’s jihadi movements, and surrounding areas under expended martial law for a full year.
The region has been under martial law since June, after Manila launched a counteroffensive to flush out members of the ISIS-linked Maute Group, which overran the southern Philippine city of Marawi in May. Government troops — with air, logistics and intelligence support from U.S. special operations forces — recaptured the ISIS-held city in October after months of brutal street-by-street fighting.
Specifically, Manila claims recent intelligence shows the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), one of several militant splinter factions of the larger jihadi movement in the south, are planning to regroup with the remnants of the Maute Group and launch a new offensive in the region.
“These activities are geared towards the conduct of intensified atrocities and armed public uprisings,” Mr. Duterte said Monday.
The group’s chief, Abu Turaifie, is widely seen as the successor to Maute Group leader Isnilon Hapilon, who had previously led the al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf terror group before pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2014. A botched raid on a suspected Hapilon safehouse by Philippine forces triggered Maute Group members to attack Marawi in May.
Mr. Hapilon and and Omar Maute, a top commander of the ISIS-affiliated terror group bearing his family’s name were killed in a Philippine special operations forces raid near Marawi in October.
Philippine military commanders had identified ties between the Maute Group and the BIFF months after the Marawi siege began.
“We have seen that in some operations wherein BIFF fighters are sending information not just to Maute but other local terrorist group in the country,” Brig. Gen. Gilbert Gapay, deputy commander of the Eastern Mindanao Command, said in June.
Mr. Duterte’s call to extend martial law in the south falls in line with Malacañang’s heavy-handed efforts to combat extremist groups operating in the Philippines. Human-rights groups have already accused the Duterte administration of egregious violations — including extrajudicial killings by local and national police forces — in its crackdown on narcotics trafficking in the country.
His effort to extend military rule in the southern Philippines is also conjuring up memories of former Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos, who implemented years of martial law in the country to suppress opposition and maintain his hold on power in the 1970’s
• Carlo Muñoz can be reached at cmunoz@washingtontimes.com.
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