Link: https://iwpr.net/global-voices/philippines-martial-law-imposed-troops-battle
The ongoing violence between the Philippines state forces and Extremists of the Islamic state has forced people living in the city of Marawi to flee their homes. The State forces have been fighting the extremists since late May, but it seems that many citizens are more worried about the martial law imposed by Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte. This order immediate order is on the island Mindanao and will be in effect for 60 days. The fear is that this could potentially cause an abuse of human rights. President Duterte demanded martial law while in Russia, he plans on extending the duration and imposing it on the entire archipelago once he arrives home. Under martial law, the military has the permission to impose warrantless arrests, curfews, and suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus. But the most intimidating part of this order is his comparison to the martial law imposed in 1970, which led to extrajudicial killings, and the disappearance of human rights activists.
It is hard to tell whether President Duterte is right or wrong in this situation, because although the Philippines has a rough history with martial law, there are officials being slaughtered by the IS and without martial law, it will take much longer to figure out who is extremists and their connections to the Islamic State. The fact that the Philippines is detached from the rest of Asia could be problematic, because once full martial law is imposed, there will be no where for citizens to flee if the military becomes more aggressive. When it comes to long lasting impacts, it is hard to tell how the nation will come out of this, but they may suffer complete destruction if they do not take a strong approach to the extremists.
To clarify just what the Islamic State is, it’s a terrorist organization of Iraq and Syria. Unlike the traditional meaning of state- an organized political unit with permanent population and an established government- the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is a self proclaimed group, they may be middle eastern but they have ties all around the world. And with a percentage of the Philippine population being Muslim, this situation is a much more difficult than it seems on the outside.