The Congress of the Philippines is rushing approval of a new law that could give President Rodrigo Duterte wide-ranging powers similar to those of his idol, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The death penalty will be restored. Torture, allowed. Filipinos could be jailed for their posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Suspected terrorists and even “unwilling witnesses” could be arrested without warrants and detained for 30 days without charge during an “actual or imminent terrorist attack”.

These are just some of the amendments proposed by Philippine security officials to the current Human Security Act of 2007 or Republic Act 9372.

The proposals come amid claims by the Duterte administration that the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines, the New People’s Army, together with opposition political parties and civil society groups, has been plotting a coup called “Red October” to overthrow the president.

However, the claims have been rubbished by critics, who say the plot has been made up to justify a crackdown on the opposition and pave the way for martial law.

In a Senate hearing on Monday, defence secretary Delfin Lorenzana pushed for approval of the new law, saying: “We won’t need to use martial law if we have something else that would give our security agencies a bit more teeth.”

Armed Forces chief of staff General Carlito Galvez, Jnr. said there was a need for longer detention periods, pointing to the recent twin bombings in Isulan, Sultan Kudarat in Mindanao which took place within five days of each other, in August and September.

“We captured the bomber. But because of a very permissive law [requiring their release in 72 hours], the bombers were able to be released from detention,” General Galvez said. Both incidents have been blamed on Islamist terrorists.

At present, Galvez said, “we cannot detain” under mere suspicion alone. It usually took up to two weeks to extract information from a “hard core terrorist”, he said.

Both Galvez and presidential national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon expressed envy for the “more restrictive” laws of other Asian countries. Australia can detain suspects “for as long as seven days or more [whereas] we can only detain suspects for three days”, former military chief Esperon said.

Human rights lawyer Antonio Gabriel La Viña, however, warned the proposals would legalise “state terrorism”. He called the amendments “repugnant to the sacred constitutional doctrine of due process of law which protects life, liberty and property of any person and the right of an accused to be heard and present evidence in his or her behalf”.

Law professor La Viña also sided with left-wing congressman Ariel Casilao, saying that the law was “another step toward a dictatorship”.

Former congressman Teddy Casiño of the Bayan Muna party list group called the proposals “very dangerous” because they “expand the definition of terrorism to virtually any crime under the sun”.

The present law specifies only a dozen high crimes including piracy and mutiny, rebellion or insurrection, coup d’etat, murder, kidnapping and serious illegal detention, arson, and use of nuclear or toxic substances.

‘My only sin is the extrajudicial killings,’ says Philippine President Duterte

However, these crimes can be considered terrorist acts only when they sow and create “a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand”. Security officials have proposed to delete this condition from the law.

In addition, they have inserted the violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 as a terrorist act. Since RA 10175 had specified that it covers the entire Philippine Penal Code, the insertion would affect a wide array of laws.

Because of this, Casiño warned that “the amendments make terrorism so broad and vague a crime it can be used against anyone – leftist organisations, tree-huggers, anti-corruption watchdogs, political enemies of those in power, even drug suspects and petty criminals”.

Other notable deletions are the sections banning torture during interrogation. Section 23 of the current RA 9372 required law enforcement workers to keep a logbook on each detainee. Section 24 specified that “no torture or coercion in investigation and interrogation” is allowed. Any evidence extracted in this manner is inadmissible.

Both sections 23 and 24 have been deleted in a draft proposed by security officials.

However, Senator Panfilo Lacson, who chairs the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, said he had tweaked the Senate version of the bill by restoring section 24 against torture, but not section 23.

Duterte: If I step down, bring back Marcos to run Philippines

Lacson has also proposed to insert a section that specifies that “legitimate exercises of the freedom of expression and to peaceably assemble … protest, dissent” would not be considered terrorist acts provided “a person does not have the intention to use or urge the use of force or violence or cause harm to others”.

Coincidentally, two of the main sponsors of the bill – Senator Lacson and House Congressman Amado Espino, Jnr. – were once both officers in the Philippine Constabulary under Marcos. The constabulary was found to have engaged in massive human rights violations of detainees, according to one of its former officials, General Ramon Montaño.

Human rights groups have estimated that 3,700 people were murdered, 40,000 tortured and up to 100,000 detained without charge during the Marcos dictatorship. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C) with Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairperson Al Haj Murad Ebrahim (L) and Ghazali Jaafar, MILF vice-chairman flash a "V" sign during a handover of a draft law of the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in a ceremony at the Malacanang presidential palace in metro Manila, Philippines July 17, 2017. Pic: Reuters

PHILIPPINES President Rodrigo Duterte vowed on Monday to fast-track new legislation for autonomy in the country’s most volatile region, advancing a protracted process to end decades of rebellion and thwart rising Islamist militancy.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) submitted to Duterte on Monday is the culmination of a rocky 20-year peace process between the government of the predominantly Christian Philippines and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).

It aims to turn predominantly Muslim parts of the southern island of Mindanao into an autonomous region with its own executive, legislature and fiscal powers.

“May I say to you my brothers … I will support and hasten this instrument as it goes to the legislature,” Duterte said in a ceremony for the handover of the bill, drawing loud applause.

“There will be no objections of the provisions of all that is consistent with the constitution and aspirations of the Moro people.”

Passage of the bill would be a major achievement for Duterte, who was a mayor in a Mindanao city for 22 years and has made peace deals with separatists and Marxist rebels a priority for his year-old government.

SEE ALSO: ‘Imbecilic’ to listen to army on martial law, Filipino communist party tells Duterte

The bill’s submission comes at a critical time for the Philippines, as fears grow that militants allied with Islamic State have exploited disillusionment over the failure of the previous Congress to pass the law, and have used it to recruit fighters and further a radical agenda.

Rebels inspired by Islamic State have occupied the commercial heart of Marawi City, on Mindanao, through seven weeks of air strikes and battles with government troops that have killed more than 500 people and displaced 260,000, marking the country’s biggest security crisis in years.

“We live in very dangerous times… we watch with utter disgust of the destruction that violent extremism has inflicted in the city of Marawi,” MILF chairman Al Haj Ebrahim Murad said.

“These misguided people have filled the vacuum created by our failure to enact the basic law and (they) feed into the frustration of our people.”

The law, details of which were not immediately available, calls for the creation of a self-administered territory within what the Philippines called Bangsamoro, meaning “Moro nation”, referring to the southern Muslims that Spanish colonialists called “Moros”.

The bill, agreed by a panel of representatives from government, the MILF and religious groups, prescribes an elected legislative assembly, a chief minister, a cabinet, with an agreement to share natural resource revenues, stacked largely in favour of the new Bangsamoro government.

In a recent interview with Reuters in Cotabato City, Mohagher Iqbal, the MILF’s top peace negotiator, said the hope was for Congress to pass the law and a transition period to start in 2019, with elections in 2022 for an 80-seat assembly.

Iqbal said he feared the Marawi siege could complicate the passage of the law if there was a perception that the MILF and the radical Maute group fighting in Marawi were associated with each other because both hail from the same region.

“Right now we don’t really know the thinking of the people,” he said. – Reuters </s> President Rodrigo Duterte is now the most powerful President in the nation’s history—more powerful than the late former President Ferdinand Marcos ever was at the height of Martial Law. This appears to be the confident view of many political observers and well-known CEOs. This is because where Marcos needed to declare Martial Law to impose authoritarian rule, DU30 has done so without declaring Martial Law. He has done and is doing anything and everything he wants to do simply by insisting that his motive is “pure,” and that the end justifies the means. And there’s been nothing and no one to stop him.

Where Marcos needed to abolish Congress to do away with venal and useless politicians, DU30 simply decided to make them part of his adopted PDP-Laban in order to railroad everything he wants to acquire a semblance of legality—from the restoration of the capital sentence for heinous crimes, to the lowering of the age of criminal responsibility from 15 years old to nine, to the revision of the present Constitution according to the wishes of the President. Speaker of the House Pantaleon Alvarez gave a terrifying demonstration of this when he spoke before the Philippine Constitution Association at the Manila Golf Club on Tuesday evening.

Where Marcos needed a military tribunal to try Lim Seng, the Chinese illegal drugs manufacturer, for drug dealing, and to condemn him to death by musketry, DU30 only had to order the Philippine National Police to eliminate suspected drug pushers, (1,800 as of the latest count), and to jail 700,000 drug users, who have opted to surrender rather than get killed by the police or vigilantes. To sweeten the pot, he has offered a bounty of P2 million for every “drug lord” killed.

And where Marcos, who died 30 years ago, continues to be savaged by the so-called victims of Martial Law for acts committed by the State in self-defense, DU30 has refused to be intimidated by any threat of being held accountable for his current acts against drug suspects after he leaves the presidency. He nonchalantly tells those who denounce his methods that he “doesn’t give a damn,” he’s simply trying to solve a serious problem of his country.

The UN special rapporteur on summary executions (Agnes Callamard) has spoken, saying “claims to fight illicit drug trade do not absolve the government from its international obligations and do not shield state actors or others from responsibility for illegal killings.”

So have the US State Department, the White House, and Amnesty International on human rights. So has Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno on warrantless arrests and impunity. So have Archbishop Socrates Villegas of Lingayen-Dagupan and President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, former CBCP President and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Emeritus Oscar V. Cruz, and Manila Cardinal-Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle on the moral law and the right to life.

So have 300 international nongovernmental organizations, which signed a letter denouncing DU30’s policies and demanding that international drug control agencies state unequivocally that such killings “do not constitute acceptable drug control measures.”

While he relishes the honor and homage paid to him by the public and the local media, he has refused to be swayed by the critical nudging by the international press. TIME magazine has spoken. The New York Times has spoken. The Washington Post has spoken. The Los Angeles Times has spoken. The Economist of London has spoken. The Guardian and The Daily Mail have spoken. Japan Times has spoken. The South China Morning Post has spoken. CNN and Bloomberg have spoken. BBC has spoken. Al Jazeera has spoken. Russia Today has spoken. And so have we.

We have not heard from Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Die Zeit or Spiegel in Germany. Or from Le Figaro, Le Monde or L’Humanite in Paris. Or from Corriere della Sera, La Republica or La Stampa in Italy. And we may not hear much from People’s Daily or the English-language China Daily in Beijing.

Or from Yomiuri Shimbun with a circulation of 9,240,00, Asahi with 7,210,000 and with 3,300,000 in Tokyo. But we cannot simply ignore the sober message of the largest and oldest English language paper in Japan (founded in 1897).

In a recent editorial, Japan Times said, “The (Philippine) drug problem may well constitute a national crisis, but that cannot excuse the shredding of the rule of law and extrajudicial killings. Human rights extend to the guilty and the innocent alike.”

Quoting UN figures, the editorial said the Philippines had the highest metamphetamine use in East Asia in 2012, and according to the Philippine National Police chief, it has 3.7 million drug users. In 2013, the drug trade was worth $8.4 billion, and between 2010 and 2015, 623 government officials and employees were arrested on drug-related offenses; 6,000 anti-drug operations were conducted nationwide.

But it pointed out that Thailand under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra waged a similar war on drugs, in which 3,000 innocent victims were killed without making a dent in the trafficking or use of illegal drugs.

“Loss of innocent lives or the settling of scores under the guise of cleaning up the drug trade is one problem,” the editorial said. “Even more worrying over the long run is the erosion of the rule of law in a country with a long history of abuse of power. Filipinos have struggled to reclaim their democracy and it has been a long and frustrating process. Duterte is only the most recent in a long line of autocrats who have been irritated by the inefficiencies of a democratically elected government. Corruption has been and continues to be a real problem in the Philippines. But the solution to that problem is rigid and neutral application of the law —not its disregard.”

DU30 tends to dismiss the world press as an inconvenience and irrelevancy. However, as president of a sovereign country with an active role in the world community, he has to deal with individuals, governments and institutions that cannot be indifferent or neutral to international public opinion. He would be meeting with some of them in Vientiane, Laos during the Asean summit conference next week, and hosting them or their successors at the Asean summit next year in Manila.

One of these will be US President Obama, who has expressed a keen desire to talk to him precisely about the things where he has, so far, dismissed as external “interference” the interest expressed by other governments and institutions. Obama will be leaving the White House by January 20 next year, but until then he carries a big stick.

This is one meeting the international media and the diplomatic community will be watching keenly.

I listened to Speaker Alvarez at the Philconsa monthly meeting on Monday evening, and came out of it feeling scared. In the one-minute invocation which I was asked to give, I offered a simple prayer: “As we prepare to address the many constitutional ills of our government, Lord, speak to us through our Speaker, and permit him not to stray so that we may not be left groping in the dark. In the dialogue that will follow, give us the courage to speak if the truth is with us, and give our honored Guest the curiosity to inquire if there are things You have revealed to the simple which You have hidden from the wise.”

In his speech, Alvarez did not refer to any infirmity of the present Constitution, which needs to be cured, other than the “highly centralized” unitary state that must now be replaced by a federal system, pursuant to the desire of the President. But in addition to changing the territorial structure from unitary to federal, Alvarez also spoke of changing the present bicameral Congress into a unicameral assembly or parliament under a system similar to the French. This means a thorough-going revision of the Constitution, not simply a matter of amending it. This is a task for the sovereign Filipino people, through their delegates in a constitutional convention, rather than for a rubber-stamp Congress.

But Alvarez said the President has decided that the proposed constitutional changes should come from the present Congress, convened as a constituent assembly (con-ass), in order to save on expenses, among other things. The President will also appoint a group of experts to draft the initial proposed changes, which, presumably upon his approval, will be submitted to the con-ass. The idea could not have frightened me if it had been presented as a proposal for mature deliberation and debate, but it was presented as something already carved in stone, because it’s what the President wanted.

This compelled me to ask the first question. I said that there’s no doubt we need to revisit the Constitution. It is technically flawed. However, in proposing any amendment to, or revision of, the Constitution, we have to be guided strictly by what the same Constitution says on how, and by whom, amendments or revisions should be proposed. Under Article XVII, only the Congress sitting as a con-ass, and the Filipino people, through a constitutional convention or by direct initiative, may propose constitutional changes. There is no mention of any role for the President.

And yet this point seemed completely lost on Alvarez. He made it unmistakably clear that the constitutional revisions that would be proposed, and the manner by which they would be proposed, were decreed by the President, like imperial edicts. What was scary was the cold finality with which he delivered his lines, like Augustine (in a nobler context) informing his flock that the Pope had ratified the condemnation of the Pelagian heresy, which denied the primitive state in Paradise and original sin, by the councils of Milevi and Carthage. Roma locuta; causa finitaest, said Augustine—Rome has spoken; the cause is finished.

Bar this Congress, let the people do their thing

Even without DU30’s overt intervention, the present Congress lacks the moral integrity and competence to propose anything on the people’s behalf. The present state of the Congress is surreal. The so-called House super-majority was cobbled after so many unprincipled opportunists migrated to DU30’s adopted party, which did not quite have five visible members before the election. Even the minority was formed with the tacit benediction of the majority. In the Senate, the only organic member of the PDP-Laban, Koko Pimentel, became the Senate president, while former Senate president Franklin Drilon, who should be leading the Senate minority in a morally sensitive environment, now manipulates Pimentel as Senate president pro-tempore.

The sovereign Filipino people cannot and must not allow this unprincipled and opportunistic Congress to propose a revision to the Constitution at the behest of a constitutionally excluded authority. DU30, being smarter than all his minions, should reject the devil’s temptation to get involved, as strongly as Christ rejected it at the desert, and let the people, who are ultimately wiser than their machine-elected “leaders,” do what the Constitution prescribes. </s> New legislation that would grant the Philippine president powers similar to martial law comes amid claims by critics that he made up the alleged ‘Red October’ coup plot to justify a crackdown on the opposition </s> Rodrigo Duterte has made international headlines as much for his aggressive policies as for his aggressive statements which range from questioning the existence of God and desire to slaughter drug addicts to hurling extremely offensive expletives towards former US President Barack Obama.

Now, the President of the Philippines could be armed with even more power, power that could make him virtually invincible in his country.

The country's Congress is on the cusp of approving amendments in the existing Human Security Act of 2007. What this means that soon, Philippines could jail people for their posts on social media, death penalty could be brought back and torture could be made a state-approved tactic against accused.

If the approvals do come, groups which have been highlighting violation of human rights in the country could be even more enraged but many feel their voices would be curtailed even further. And while state officials say that the amendments are necessary due to terror threats that the country faces, opposition leaders have claimed that these are the false pretext on the basis of which, Duterte is hegemonizing his rule and power.

In the past, Duterte has angered more than just his political rivals due to his statements. The most criticised of his quotes, perhaps, was when he said he would resign if anyone could prove that God exists. This evoked a sharp reaction with a Catholic bishop terming him a 'psycopath.' </s> The South China Morning Post (SCMP) has long been a bastion of anti-Beijing rhetoric with long standing ties to pro-British factions in Hong Kong. Although the SCMP is now owned by the Alibaba Group of Jack Ma, the editorial line has if anything become more brazen and provocative than under its former owners.

But beyond attacking the Chinese government, the SCMP has taken a radically liberal/yellow line on Philippine politics with President Rodrigo Duterte being a favourite target of abuse. Of course the editorial line of the SCMP is not the concern of the Philippine government, but when the newspaper spreads outrageous and unsubstantiated allegations about the Philippine President it is only fitting and proper for the government to raise an official complaint against the newspaper.

On the 3rd of October, the SCMP published a piece by resident Duterte hater Raissa Robles entitled, “Philippines plans law to give Duterte Marcos-like powers”. Virtually everything Robles writes is contrary to the reality of the political situation in The Philippines. According to Robles,

“The death penalty will be restored. Torture, allowed. Filipinos could be jailed for their posts on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Suspected terrorists and even “unwilling witnesses” could be arrested without warrants and detained for 30 days without charge during an “actual or imminent terrorist attack”.

These are just some of the amendments proposed by Philippine security officials to the current Human Security Act of 2007 or Republic Act 9372″.

The facts tell a different story. While President Duterte has stated that he is in favour of restoring capital punishment (something that has been done before in recent Philippine history) and while Congress passed a bill authorising the re-institution of the death penalty, the Senate has effectively left the bill in legislative purgatory. Little progress on the issue has been made as a result and as things stand, capital punishment does not exist in The Philippines.

Secondly, no one anywhere in Philippine politics is discussing jailing anyone over social media posts. The fact that Filipinos are among the most active social media posters in the world indicates that if anything, the online freedoms of Filipinos are only expanding. As for detaining terrorists for longer periods of time, two Senators, neither of whom are members of President Duterte’s PDP-Laban party have introduced proposals for increasing the detention time of suspected terrorists in light of recent jihadist bombings in Mindanao.

Senators Panfilo Lacson and Gregorio Honasan have proposed expanding the period which suspected terrorists can be detained from a mere three days to thirty, thus bringing The Philippines in-line with most moderate international standards. The proposals also include some modest beefing up of intelligence gathering activities in respect of anti-terror police.

It is also crucial to remember that these proposals appear to be a long way from becoming law. While the SCMP piece claims that these proposals are far more severe than they are, while falsely ascribing them to the President, the reality is that the Presidential administration has said that Duterte is not going to declare nation wide martial law nor anything remotely similar as it is President Duterte’s view that the ongoing red-yellow conspiracy to bring down his presidency seeks to provoke the President into declaring martial law. Therefore, Duterte has made it clear that he has no intention of playing into the hands of the conspirators.

While President Duterte is in favour of a tough approach to cracking down on jihadist and far-left terrorism, the article does not accurately reflect the ways in which the Presidential administration seeks to implement a tougher stance on both local and internationally affiliated terror groups including Daesh (ISIS) which currently has cells active in Mindanao.

By publishing such a provocative piece that totally misrepresents the reality in of President Duterte’s security aims, the SCMP has insulting the integrity of The Philippine nation and of all of Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s millions of supporters. Not only should the newspaper retract its allegations but its editorial staff and owners should apologise to President Duterte in writing for insulting his dignity and misrepresenting his policies. </s> Manila (AFP) - The Philippine Congress opened a special session Saturday to vote on President Rodrigo Duterte's bid for an extension of martial law in the south to defeat Islamist gunmen.

Duterte is widely expected to win approval for martial law in the region until the end of the year, with troops having failed to wrest back Marawi city following two months of fighting.

A slide presentation accompanying Duterte's request, seen by AFP, compared the Marawi crisis to the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Marawi itself could now become a magnet for foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, it said.

Most of the militants' leaders remain at large, the presentation added, while about 90 of the gunmen have slipped past security cordons and can link up with other armed groups in the region to mount similar widescale attacks.

At the hearing, defence and security officials justified the need for martial law, saying that aside from Marawi, Islamist militants were planning attacks in other parts of the southern Philippines.

They said almost a thousand pro-IS militants, holding 23 hostages, were still active elsewhere in the south.

In Marawi, the military said only about 60 gunmen were left in a 49-hectare (121-acre) area of Marawi, but Duterte said he needed martial law powers to rebuild the city and ensure the war did not spread elsewhere.

"I cannot afford to be complacent," Duterte told reporters Friday, adding the military would be conducting further "mopping up operations" even after they recapture Marawi.

"If there is a spillage it will not be as bad if you have this stopgap," he added.

Duterte imposed 60-day martial rule -- the maximum period allowed by the constitution -- over the Mindanao region on May 23 within hours of the gunmen beginning their rampage.

On Monday he asked Congress to extend it until the end of the year, along with the continued suspension of a constitutional safeguard against warrantless arrests.

In an unprecedented move, both the House and the Senate met jointly on a weekend to vote on Duterte's request.

- 'Nationwide martial law' -

Story continues

Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures such as curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a country where civilians are authorised to keep licensed firearms in their homes.

However, any martial law extension must be approved by Congress.

The subject remains sensitive in the Philippines, decades after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the country under military rule for part of his 20-year term.

Thousands of critics, political opponents as well as communist guerrillas were killed, detained or arrested during the period, according to historians.

About a dozen protesters in the gallery interrupted Saturday's hearing, chanting "never again, never again to martial law" before being escorted out.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said previously he sees no roadblock to the swift approval of the extension by both chambers of Congress.

Duterte had already beaten back a Supreme Court petition to declare martial law in Mindanao illegal.

But opposition politicians have criticised Duterte's proposal for an extension, with some alleging it is part of a Duterte plot to eventually bring the country under a military-backed dictatorship.

"Once he feels that there is not enough opposition to a nationwide martial law declaration, he will go for it," Senator Antonio Trillanes told AFP on Tuesday.

After this he could declare a revolutionary government to allow him to stay in office beyond his six-year electoral term in mid-2022, Trillanes says.

Duterte, 72, insists he has no plan to stay in office beyond his term. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has asked Congress to extend martial law over the southern island of Mindanao until the end of the year, saying he needs more time to put down a rebellion there. </s> Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, third from left, arrives to visit troops in Camp Ranao in Maraw (Presidential Photographers Division, Malacanang Palace)

The Philippine Congress has voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law in the south until the end of the year.

The legislators backed President Rodrigo Duterte's call for an extension in the Mindanao region to deal with Islamist gunmen who have occupied parts of a southern city for two months.

Duterte had previously imposed a 60-day martial law over Mindanao when fighting broke out in Marawi on May 23, but it was set to expire Saturday.

The Philippine Congress opened a special session Saturday to vote on President Rodrigo Duterte's bid for an extension of martial law in the south to defeat Islamist gunmen.

A slide presentation accompanying Duterte's request, seen by AFP, compared the Marawi crisis to the Islamic State takeover of the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Marawi itself could now become a magnet for foreign fighters in Iraq and Syria, it said.

Most of the militants' leaders remain at large, the presentation added, while about 90 of the gunmen have slipped past security cordons and can link up with other armed groups in the region to mount similar widescale attacks.

At the hearing, defence and security officials justified the need for martial law, saying that aside from Marawi, Islamist militants were planning attacks in other parts of the southern Philippines.

They said almost a thousand pro-IS militants, holding 23 hostages, were still active elsewhere in the south.

In Marawi, the military said only about 60 gunmen were left in a 49-hectare (121-acre) area of Marawi, but Duterte said he needed martial law powers to rebuild the city and ensure the war did not spread elsewhere.

"I cannot afford to be complacent," Duterte told reporters Friday, adding the military would be conducting further "mopping up operations" even after they recapture Marawi.

"If there is a spillage it will not be as bad if you have this stopgap," he added.

Duterte imposed 60-day martial rule -- the maximum period allowed by the constitution -- over the Mindanao region on May 23 within hours of the gunmen beginning their rampage.

On Monday he asked Congress to extend it until the end of the year, along with the continued suspension of a constitutional safeguard against warrantless arrests.

In an unprecedented move, both the House and the Senate met jointly on a weekend to vote on Duterte's request.

When Marawi, a once-little known city in the southern Philippines, was overrun by militants allied to IS in May, it brought the spectre of radical Islamist insurgency to Australia’s doorstep. Australia urged to join regional IS fight as Marawi crisis continues A United States general is urging Australia to join the fight against IS extremists in south-east Asia.

Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures such as curfews, checkpoints and gun controls in a country where civilians are authorised to keep licensed firearms in their homes.

However, any martial law extension must be approved by Congress.

The subject remains sensitive in the Philippines, decades after the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos put the country under military rule for part of his 20-year term.

Thousands of critics, political opponents as well as communist guerrillas were killed, detained or arrested during the period, according to historians.

About a dozen protesters in the gallery interrupted Saturday's hearing, chanting "never again, never again to martial law" before being escorted out.

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has said previously he sees no roadblock to the swift approval of the extension by both chambers of Congress.

Duterte had already beaten back a Supreme Court petition to declare martial law in Mindanao illegal.

But opposition politicians have criticised Duterte's proposal for an extension, with some alleging it is part of a Duterte plot to eventually bring the country under a military-backed dictatorship.

"Once he feels that there is not enough opposition to a nationwide martial law declaration, he will go for it," Senator Antonio Trillanes told AFP on Tuesday.

After this he could declare a revolutionary government to allow him to stay in office beyond his six-year electoral term in mid-2022, Trillanes says.

Duterte, 72, insists he has no plan to stay in office beyond his term.
The Congress of the Philippines proposes a new law that could give Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte wide-ranging powers similar to Ferdinand Marcos.