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posted by n1 on Friday May 26 2017, @04:17PM   Printer-friendly

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law Tuesday in the southern region of Mindanao, after deadly clashes between security forces and Islamic State group-linked militants in a major city there.

The announcement, made by his spokesman at a press conference in Moscow where Duterte was on an official visit, fulfills an often-repeated warning by the president that he would enforce military rule to quell security threats. "As of 10:00pm Manila time (1400 GMT) Duterte has declared martial law for the entire island of Mindanao," spokesman Ernesto Abella said in the nationally televised briefing. Abella said martial law would be in place for 60 days, in line with constitutional limits on the use of military rule.

Martial law is particularly sensitive in the Philippines because it was used by dictator Ferdinand Marcos to remain in power during his two-decade reign, which ended in 1986 with a "People Power" revolution.

Mindanao is made up of a large island of the same name, plus smaller islands, and the region of about 20 million people makes up roughly one third of the mainly Catholic country.

[...] The announcement came after security forces battled dozens of IS-linked gunmen in a built-up area of Marawi, a city of about 200,000 people in Mindanao, on Tuesday.

Source: Yahoo! News

In the Philippines, concerns are mounting over the proliferation of Islamic State affiliates on the southern islands of Mindanao. Jihadist groups in the region have been coalescing under the extremist group's flag since the head of Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Hapilon, declared his allegiance to Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014. Less than a decade earlier, Mindanao's various Islamic State affiliates were a jumble of local gangs engaged in criminal activity under the dubious banner of jihad.

By adopting the Islamic State's moniker and mimicking some of its tactics, Hapilon and other jihadist leaders in the Philippines have gained legitimacy, along with notoriety, as part of a well-known, transnational movement. But beyond that, the benefits of taking up the Islamic State banner have been marginal.

Source: Stratfor article published earlier this year.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:24PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 26 2017, @11:24PM (#516188)

    China is kinda unfair to include in that list, because before Jinping Xi, there was another authoritarian technocrat appointed by the Communist Party of China, whose policies were only really distinguishable by name and not form.

    Maybe it seems that way from the outside, but not on the inside. Xi has centralized a lot of power in himself under the guise of fighting corruption. Power that was previously distributed across the government. Real life isn't black and white, there are degrees of authoritarianism and China had been making progress under Hu. They had a long way to go, but under Xi progress has been reversed.