President Rodrigo Duterte has declared martial law in the southern third of the nation and warned he would enforce it harshly. Mr Duterte declared martial rule for 60 days in the entire Mindanao region, the restive southern third of the Philippine archipelago. “I warned everybody not to force my hand into it,'' Mr Duterte said on a plane en route to the Philippines on Wednesday. Martial law allows Mr Duterte to harness the armed forces to carry out arrests, searches and detentions more rapidly. Hapilon, an Arabic-speaking Islamic preacher known for his expertise on commando assaults, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group in 2014.

Source: Bangkok Post May 24, 2017 07:52 UTC