On Tuesday 23 May, Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in the southern island of Mindanao. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was announced soon after; it is meant to apply only to charges of rebellion or offenses related to invasion.
I grew up in northern Mindanao, three hours overland from Marawi where combined state forces clashed with Islamist militants this week in pursuit of 'high value targets'. The Abu Sayyaf and the Maute groups, which align themselves with ISIS, occupied a church and city hall.
On Friday morning, military and police officials declared the situation under control, with both groups flushed out of the city and hostages rescued. At least 20 people were killed; none are civilians. Security forces remain on high alert.
I have not been able to bring myself to ring my family. I'm sure they're fine. They live far away in a gated estate tucked into a hill. Mindanao has borne more than its share of violence but it is a large island, and conflict in one part does not mean all parts are raging. I still remember a joke from childhood, made by a smartarse uncle, that Islamist militants don't touch our city because that's where they do their shopping.
Somewhere in the past year, my sister and I made an unspoken agreement to not talk about politics, though it had been a staple of our phone conversations since I moved to Australia. My family had voted for Duterte. That is nothing to be smug about. Rather, I feel fearful and despondent. They had believed that it was going to be different. That change had come.
None of what continues to unravel in the Philippines is a shock. In August last year, barely more than a month from inauguration, Duterte mentioned the prospect of martial law in relation to his drug war. He raised it again and again as a means of dealing with criminality and extremism, a cure-all.
Duterte is the sixth president since the 1986 People Power revolution that overthrew Ferdinand Marcos. His administration facilitated the transfer of Marcos' remains to the Heroes' Cemetery. He is a close associate of the dictator's children. Martial law was long in play before the incidents in Marawi this week, and is in character for an ex-mayor with alleged links to 'death squads'.
Still, that a crisis in Mindanao has triggered a declaration of martial law — rather than the purported