President Rodrigo Duterte plans to extend martial law in the southern Philippines to defeat Islamist militants who have seized a major city, his administration said Tuesday, as critics warned the country could be edging towards a dictatorship. “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.
President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte plans to appeal to the Congress of the Philippines to extend Proclamation No. 216 (martial law on the whole of Mindanao, which will end on 22 July 10 PM PST) until the end of 2017, due to constitutional constraints as well as the ongoing Marawi crisis.