MANILA Cheap Nike Air Max Thea , Oct. 20 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has no plans of lifting martial law in Mindanao in the southern Philippines despite the "liberation" of Marawi City from the clutches of pro-Islamic State (IS) extremists, a government statement has said.


Duterte said on Thursday night that the martial law will stay until all terrorist groups in the southern region are neutralized.


"When the time came, I declared martial law. Everybody is asking when will it stop? It will not stop until the last terrorist is taken out," Duterte said at a business conference event.


Duterte said martial law is needed to guarantee the safety of Filipinos in Mindanao.


"He echoed the military and the police's warning that terrorists may continue to retaliate even as the top leaders of the Maute terrorists had been neutralized," Duterte's office said in a statement.


The statement further read, "As such the president stressed that martial law would continue to prevail in the region."


Duterte imposed martial law on the entire Mindanao region when the Maute and Abu Sayyaf militants took over Marawi on May 23. The conflict dragged on for nearly five months and has so far killed more than 1,000 people, including 163 government forces, and wounded more than 1,700 others.


On Tuesday, Duterte declared to have liberated the ruined city from the IS-linked militants. But firefight continued as troops flush out the remaining 30 rebels and try to rescue the remaining hostages.



People look at the original version (bottom left) of the Japanese Constitution during an exhibition to commemorate its 70th anniversary in Tokyo on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

Japan's American-written "peace constitution" has survived, unchanged, for 70 years. But nationalists seeking an overhaul are gearing up for a major new push as concerns grow over North Korea.


Conservatives have long called for the document they see as a national humiliation to be amended, but current political alignments and growing security concerns suggest they now have their best chance to succeed.


"The time is ripe," Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday in a speech to supporters of change. "We will take a historic step toward the major goal of revising the constitution in this milestone year."


The constitution, which took effect 70 years ago on Wednesday (May 3), renounced Japan's sovereign right to wage war. It has been championed by progressives as a pacifist symbol born out of the country's World War II defeat.


Supporters argue the document is a bulwark against any repeat of Japan's WWII aggression, and warn attempts to revise it risk whitewashing the country's modern history.


But nationalists deride it as an alien charter forced on the country by an occupying power - the US - bent on imposing its own Western values.


And they see those who defend its emphasis on peace as dangerously out of tune with geopolitical -realities, such as North Korea's nuclear and missile -programs.


"The fault lines of Japanese politics very much run through the constitution," said Kenneth Ruoff, professor of modern Japanese history at Portland State University.


Abe has long vowed to bring it more in line with what conservatives see as Japanese values, such as greater emphasis on obligations rather than rights, and on the family not the individual.


While unlikely to seek the complete removal of the popular and war-renouncing Article 9, supporters advocate for changes to its wording, such as recognizing the country's self-defense forces as a military and clarifying Japan's right to defend itself.


Pro-amendment parties can now muster the two-thirds majorities necessary in both houses of parliament to pass changes, though they would be subject to a national referendum for final approval and that is seen as the biggest hurdle.


Public support?


The constitution has never been amended, but governments such as Abe's have interpreted it in ways that have effectively loosened some of its constraints.


In 2015, for example, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its allies rammed legislation through parliament enabling Japan to engage in "collective security" - the defense of troops from its US ally and other friendly nations - if it was seriously threatened.


That triggered a backlash from legal scholars and lawyers - who argued the changes violated the constitution - and sparked demonstrations outside parliament.


On Monday, Japan dispatched its biggest warship since WWII to escort and protect a US supply vessel in the first such action under the new security laws as tensions mount in the region over North Korea.


While pro-revisionists now have their "greatest chance" to make changes, it may still be hard for them to amend the document, which would require a consensus, said Ruoff. "Everybody has to agree and that's not so easy."


Public opinion polling shows broad acceptance of the "peace constitution" - as it is widely known - as a whole, although views are divided on the hot-button issue of Article 9.


Taeko Higa, a Tokyo office worker, staunchly opposes any changes and fears for the future.


"I'm interested in the constitution and politics but many people around me aren't," she said, worrying they are vulnerable to aggressive arguments in favor of revision.


While polls show the overwhelming majority of Japanese are concerned by North Korea's missile tests, surveys have turned up wide variations in the level of support for amending Article 9.


Public broadcaster NHK found only 25 percent of respondents in favor of changing it, with 57 percent opposed. Another survey by Kyodo News found 49 percent for and 47 percent against.


Attitudes would likely harden if there was a real attack - intentional or accidental - by Pyongyang.


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