Philippine lifts martial law

President Gloria Arroyo yesterday lifted martial law in a southern Philippine province where an election-linked massacre left 57 people dead, senior aides said, with over 500 suspects now arrested.
The regime imposed martial law eight days ago in Maguindanao province ends at 9:00pm (1300 GMT), the government announced after Arroyo met her top security advisers in the capital Manila.
In a separate statement, government on Saturday warned tribal gunmen holding dozens of people captive in a Philippine jungle as the crisis entered a third day, officials said.
The small group of gunmen raided a school in a small farming village in the Agusan valley region of the southern island of Mindanao on Thursday and took 75 hostages, including children and relatives of their local rivals. Twenty-eight hostages, including 18 children were later freed.
"I outlined to them a certain scenario that would happen if they refused to release the remaining hostages," local social worker Josefina Bajade, the chief government negotiator in the crisis, told AFP.
She would not discuss details. Provincial government officials later met the most senior police and military officials of Agusan del Sur province here to consider their options.