Mindanao needs new security plan – lawmaker

The Department of National Defense and the Philippine National Police need to draw up a whole new security strategy for Mindanao to prevent a repeat of the Marawi City siege elsewhere, according to a lawmaker.

“We cannot afford to expose another city or large municipality in Mindanao to a crisis akin to Marawi, or to the Zamboanga City siege in 2013,” Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, a member of the House Committee on National Defense and Security, said in a statement.