Iligan temporarily implements 'lockdown' as Marawi clashes continue | ABS-CBN

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Iligan temporarily implements 'lockdown' as Marawi clashes continue

Iligan temporarily implements 'lockdown' as Marawi clashes continue

ABS-CBN News

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Updated May 29, 2017 06:53 PM PHT

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A family carrying their belongings walks in front of other residents in vehicles as they flee from Marawi on Saturday. Ted Aljibe, AFP

MANILA - (2nd UPDATE) Iligan City was temporarily placed under lockdown amid reports that Maute rebels disguised as civilians fleeing skirmishes between state troops and rebel forces in the neighboring city of Marawi.

Iligan Mayor Celso Regencia said authorities temporarily implemented a lockdown from 12:00 midnight to 3:00 am Monday due to a military operation.

"For the purpose of that operation.. na nung oras na yun 12:00 up to 3:00 in the morning.. walang pwedeng papasok at walang pwedeng papalabasin para naman kung merong operation," said Regencia.

Regencia added another lockdown in Iligan City, located 30 kilometers from Marawi, may be implemented when necessary.

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In a separate interview Monday, a military official said authorities decided on a lockdown to ensure the city's security.

"Nagkaroon po ng koordinasyon sa security forces na i-lockdown po muna namin ang Iligan City. Ang ibig sabihin po iyung mga pumapasok sa Iligan City, kung hindi man sila taga-Iligan City pinapabalik po kung saan man sila galing," Col. Alex Aduca, chief of the Army's 4th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, said in a phone interview with radio DZMM.

"Mayroon na po tayong reports na some of their comrade, itong mga armed groups na ito, ay nakikipag-blend sa mga evacuees at sumasama sila, lalong-lalo na ang kanilang mga wounded," he added.

(We have reports that some comrades of these armed groups, especially those injured by the fighting, have blended with evacuees)

"Mayroon po tayong mga na-apprehend at ipinasa po natin sa ating mga pulis para i-process po sila na 'pag mayroon silang involvement dini-detain po ng ating kapulisan."

(We have apprehended some of them. They will be detained if their alleged involvement in the Marawi siege is proven.)

Under the lockdown, Aduca said evacuees are denied entry to Iligan and instead sent to "consolidation and processing areas" in Matungao and Tagoloan towns, where they will be given basic services.

Aduca also mentioned that the curfew in Iligan City 12 has been expanded, from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m, a claim later clarified by Regencia.

Some 100 people have been killed in Marawi City since fighting erupted between government forces and Maute extremists last week. President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday placed Mindanao under martial law.

The fighting has also forced some 13,600 individuals to seek shelter in evacuation centers and another 42,100 persons to flee to nearby towns.

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US shuns climate science meeting

US shuns climate science meeting

Agence France-Presse

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US representatives are not at a key climate science meeting in China, a source told AFP on Monday, sitting out a fight over the UN's next blockbuster assessment of global warming research.

US officials declined to comment last week on reports that America's delegation had been pulled from the UN talks in Hangzhou.

But a source at the meeting, which opened on Monday, told AFP: "We haven't seen anyone from a US delegation, and there hasn't been anyone representing the US in plenary session so far."

US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a "scam" and made no secret of his disdain for the United Nations and climate science, has already pulled Washington out of the landmark Paris Agreement for a second time.

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However, observers said the decision to withdraw scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), set up in 1988 to inform policymakers, was a new "blow".

"Regardless of political views on climate policy, abandoning the world's most authoritative scientific body on climate risks, impacts, and pathways will damage US research and society," warned leading climate scientist Johan Rockstrom.

"International scientific progress is key to prosperity, equity, and resilience -- for the US and all nations," said Rockstrom, of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

The meeting in Hangzhou comes on the heels of the hottest year on record and rising alarm over the pace of warming.

It will be dominated by a battle over the content and timing of the UN's next major assessment of climate change research.

Many wealthy countries and developing nations most exposed to climate impacts want that three-part assessment -- covering physical science, climate impacts and solutions for reducing greenhouse gas levels -- out before 2028.

That is when countries are due to provide their next "stocktake" -- an accounting of their progress in responding to climate change.

Producing the IPCC reports before the stocktake would mean countries can be guided by the most up-to-date science, these countries argue.

- 'Pushing against limit' -

They face objections from some oil producers and major polluters with rising emissions, including India, China, Saudi Arabia and Russia.

They say producing the next report, the IPCC's seventh since 1990, before the stocktake deadline will rush the process.

Top UN officials sought to inject urgency into proceedings as they opened the meeting, which will largely take place behind closed doors.

The Paris Agreement's goal of keeping temperature rises no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels "is still mathematically possible but of course we are pushing against that very limit", warned UN Environment Programme chief Inger Andersen.

"Time is not on our side," she warned, urging "ambitious" outcomes from the talks.

Without directly mentioning any country, Andersen also said: "Science cannot be politicised."

"The IPCC stands unequivocally for the best science the world can deliver. Science is physics, not politics," she said.

The UN's first stocktake, published in 2023, was a damning indictment of the lack of progress on tackling warming.

In response, countries at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai issued a groundbreaking call for the world to move away from fossil fuels, albeit cushioned by concessions to oil and gas interests.

Observers fear the meeting will be the last chance to agree that the IPCC's next assessment arrives before the 2028 stocktake.

"I think why it's been so bitter is where we are at this moment in time -- the geopolitical pressure and the financial pain of impacts, and the transition away from fossil fuels," said one person close to the talks, who was not authorised to speak on the record.

They noted that new findings in fast-developing areas of research with global implications would be particularly important for policymakers as they draw up new climate plans.

The IPCC has warned the world is on course to cross the Paris deal's long-term warming threshold of 1.5C above pre-industrial levels in the early 2030s.

Recent studies have also suggested that milestone could be crossed before the end of this decade.

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