President Rodrigo Duterte said on Friday that he was considering lifting martial law in Mindanao but said there seemed to be a spillover of the terror threat to other parts of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Duterte made the admission more than three months after he declared martial law in the entire Mindanao following the attack of Islamic State-inspired terrorists in Marawi City.
“I was thinking that we could, you know, lift it earlier. But the way it looks, parang may spillover na sa ARMM eh, sa Buldon,” Duterte said in a speech during the 11th founding anniversary of the Eastern Mindanao Command in Davao City.
Buldon is a municipality in Maguindanao province.
The President said he was still open to lift martial law ahead of its deadline on December 31, 2017.
Congress extended on July 22 Duterte’s request to extend his martial law in Mindanao until the end of 2017.
“Let us see. If it is to the interest of the country that I will lift it, I will lift it. But if not, then we’ll just have to continue with the martial law,” he said.