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No urgency, obviously. No chest-beating patriotism. Nothing that you would imagine, reading Western newspapers.
More than two years ago, while covering the Muslim extremist insurgency in the city of Marawi (Mindanao Island), I was arrested by the military and literally disappeared inside the barracks.
I was able to explain the situation, over the mobile phone, to my friends in Manila, who alerted the highest command there. Orders came from top generals: to release me immediately. But there was a mutiny. Local officers disobeyed, and I had to stay inside the compound until late-night hours. At some point, a jeep and an armored vehicle were dispatched, in order to drive me more than 100 kilometers to my hotel in Cagayan de Oro.
Later on, it was explained to me what really happened: while the pro-Duterte generals were happy to have me on the ground in the war zone, several pro-U.S. commanders were trying to make sure that non-Western and especially Russian reporters were to be kept out of the place. For many reasons. One of them: Marawi was full of 'Western allies' - extremist groups from other Southeast Asian countries, and other jihadi cadres, including, some said to me there, Uyghurs.
The next day, the pro-Duterte men asked me to return, and personally drove me back to the front. I was one of the few foreigners allowed to the front-line.
A small incident? Perhaps. But it clearly illustrates how complex, how divided the situation is, even inside the armed forces.
And the division is not only in places like Marawi, Zamboanga, Sulu and the other restive areas of the South.
The most divisive issue is that of China, and whether Rodrigo Duterte, the most popular President in the history of the Philippines, will be able to, against all odds, fully change the foreign policy of his country.
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