Duterte declares Martial Law in entire Mindanao Island

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the entire Mindanao island on 10 p.m. Tuesday amid the ongoing clashes between government troops and Maute group terrorists in Marawi City, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said.

The briefing was done in Moscow by Abella under Duterte's order. The martial law will be in effect for 60 days, as stipulated in the Constitution.

"This is on the grounds of resistance and rebellion based on what is happening," Abella said.

"What the President has done is only for Mindanao including Basilan, Sulu, and Tawi-tawi," he added.

Duterte's meeting with Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will be postponed as he will leave Russia at 10 p.m. Moscow time, to return to Manila, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said.

"They understand that the President has to return to the Philippines. I will stay behind to sign agreements. The President feels he is needed in Manila ASAP," Cayetano said.

According to Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, 2 soldiers and one police officer were killed, while 12 others were wounded in ongoing clashes in Marawi City.

"The whole of Marawi City is blacked out. There is no light and there are Maute snipers all around so the troops are still on holding and several groups of element already joined them from other neighboring units," he said.

The Maute group has torched several facilities: St. Mary’s Church, the city jail, the Ninoy Aquino School, and Dansalan College accroding to Lorenzana.

"No civilians are roaming around, they’re all in their houses but there are several houses that were burned surrounding the other facilities that were burned earlier," he said.

The government urged civilians on Mindanao to stay in their homes. Reinforcements of an initial 500 soldiers were on the way, but were being hamstrung by rebels blocking roads.

The militants belong to the Maute group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State in the Middle East. 

"Based on our assessment right now there are more or less 100 divided into groups of 10 in different locations," said Brigadier General Rolando Bautista, commander of the Philippines' First Infantry Division.

"Since they are advocating ISIS ideology they have to show ISIS that they are a force to be reckoned with," he said.

“The Marawi City Hall was not occupied," Public Affairs Office chief Marine Col. Edgard Arevalo said. “The sporadic firefights heard were harassment actions by terrorist sympathizers that were conducted as diversionary tactics to divide the attention of the reinforcing AFP personnel." he added.

“Follow-up operations are ongoing. We cannot reveal other details so as not to compromise operational security," Arevalo said. “Meanwhile, we fervently urge our people to refrain from posting in social media information that would tend exacerbate the situation. Especially of photos and videos on the movements of our troops and on terrorist propaganda circulating through social media."