Duterte to Indian businessmen: Avoid Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines, — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday cautioned Indian business leaders about coming to the restive southern region of Mindanao, which has been under martial law for eight months.

“Avoid Mindanao. There’s still martial law there but it’s martial law that’s not really a martial law,” Duterte said in a business event shortly before flying back to the Philippines.

"There’s something there in the south that’s quite virulent," he added.

The firebrand leader imposed martial law in the insurgency-plagued Mindanao on the day the principal Islamic city of Marawi was stormed by heavily-armed homegrown extremists who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

A string of travel warnings from foreign countries due to martial law had hit Filipino businessmen in the travel industry, prompting them to seek dialogue with Tourism officials.

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In a rousing address to troops last October, Duterte declared Marawi liberated from terrorists after five months of fighting that gave state forces, who have far more experience in jungle combat, their first taste of urban warfare.

But Duterte had warned about continuing threats of ISIS, saying militants who escaped the battle were actively recruiting those who were displaced by the fighting to carry out future assaults. Meanwhile, Congress last month extended Duterte's martial law powers over the entire Mindanao for an extra year to give him more time to stabilize the region.

Despite these developments, Duterte assured Indian businessmen that military rule in Mindanao is “for the enemies of the state.”

The crime-busting president also claimed that his hometown of Davao, a city of around 1.6 million, is “relatively safe.”

“If you’re just an ordinary guy there doing business, you can hardly even notice... there are no soldiers around, only policemen,” the president, who imposes his hometown formula on the Philippines, told Indian businessmen.

Duterte and other leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are in New Delhi for a special commemorative summit.

This is his first visit to India as a head of state and his first foreign trip this year.

His trip to the sub-continent has fetched at least $1.25 billion worth of investment pledges from Indian firms that are expected to create 10,000 jobs.