Duterte: Martial law in southern Philippines could last a year

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said Wednesday martial law in the southern district of Mindanao could last a year, as he promised it is like the late Ferdinand Marcos' tyranny.

"If it would take a year to do it, if it's over within a month, then I'd be happy," Duterte said in a video posted online by the administration.

Addressing to "our fellow Filipinos", Duterte disclosed to them they had encountered martial law amid the two-decade Marcos administration, which finished with a "People Power" revolution in 1986.

"It could not be any different from what President Marcos did," he said in the video, which was recorded just before slicing short a visit to Russia and flying back to the Philippines.

Duterte pledged to be "harsh" in managing with terrorism, disclosing to Filipinos this was one of his race battle guarantees a year ago.

"What I told everyone, do not force my hand into it. I have to do it to preserve the Republic of the Philippines, the Filipino people," he said.

Duterte on Tuesday night set the greater part of the southern locale of Mindanao, which makes up approximately 33% of the nation and is home to 20 million individuals, under martial law, taking after fatal conflicts between security powers and Islamist aggressors.

The constitution just permits military law for 60 days in case of disobedience or attack.

Presidential representative Ernesto Abella at first said martial law in Mindanao would keep going for 60 days.

However Duterte, who has brought on contention with a war on drugs that has asserted a large number of lives, has over and over undermined all through his administration that he will overlook the constitution on the off chance that he needs to authorize martial law.

Duterte has additionally said he will uphold military law across the country on the off chance that it is expected to destroy medicates in the public eye.

However Tuesday's declaration restricted martial law to Mindanao.

The declaration came after security strengths combat many IS-connected shooters in Marawi, a city of around 200,000 individuals in Mindanao, on Tuesday.

Marawi is around 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Manila, the country's capital.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said one policeman and two fighters were slaughtered in the conflicts, which started when security powers attacked a house where they trusted Isnilon Hapilon, a pioneer of the scandalous Abu Sayyaf seize group and Philippine head of IS, was covering up.

Photographs posted via web-based networking media by inhabitants demonstrated the shooters strolling through the roads of Marawi and setting dark banners that seemed to be like those utilized by IS.

Lorenzana said the shooters, who were accepted to number more than 100, had possessed a healing facility and a correctional facility, and torched structures including a Catholic Church.

He said many were stowing away in structures as expert sharpshooters, making it troublesome for security powers to battle them.

The Abu Sayyaf, in light of the most southern islands of Mindanao, has grabbed several Filipinos and nonnatives since the mid 1990s to concentrate ransoms. The United States records it as a fear based oppressor association.