victims in the first explosion. that's when the second occurred and the soldiers became victims themselves. fortunately, this is a region of the philippines that is no stranger to this kind of violence. for decades, there has been violence between christians and muslims in the area, between the government and forces in the area. in fact, just back in 2017, that islamic militants laid siege to a city called marawi. it took five months, 150 days for philippines military forces to get those militants out of the city. we know attacks have continued since then. addition nally, another piece of relevant information here is that a referendum vote took place last monday. that vote was relatively controversial. it was a vote, essentially on a plan created by the government and accept separatists.