Armed Forces of the Philippine chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. on Tuesday nixed the idea of declaring martial law in Lanao del Sur following the bombing incident in Marawi City's Mindanao State University campus. 

While the bombing could be a retaliatory attack from the militant groups who have been subjected to successive military operations, Brawner said the terrorists can no longer launch a Marawi siege-like assault as they are far fewer in number. 

"There's no need because your security forces are on top of the situation and as I said,  we believe that they will not be able to launch another attack with the magnitude of the Marawi siege," Brawner said in a television interview when asked if there was a need to declare martial law in the blast area. 

Brawner reiterated that manhunt operations against two persons of interest in the Marawi bombing are ongoing. 

"In the meantime, your Armed Forces is already conducting a manhunt, a massive operation to go against the perpetrators of this incident," he said. 

"They operate in the same area so we are running after them and hopefully very soon we'll have results," he added.

Brawner said the Philippine National Police has heightened its alert status while the AFP has declared red alert status "to make sure that our troops are on their toes and making sure that these types of incidents will not happen again."

The AFP chief said military forces remain vigilant against possible similar attacks. 

"We gave warnings to all the local government units, not only in Marawi but also in Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte because of the possibility of these kinds of attacks," he said. 

Brawner said it is now safe for the MSU campus residents and students to go back to the area.  

"We want to assure the students that they are safe inside the campus that's why we are calling on especially the Christian students who went home after this incident… So we are asking them to come back so that they can continue their education," he said.

On the other hand, Brawner maintained it was not the failure of intelligence but a lack of security measures that led to the bombing in the area.

"I don't think so, we have warned the necessary forces, security forces, even the LGUs, and the civilians to be wary, to be vigilant because these kinds of things could happen," Brawner said when asked if he could describe the bombing as a failure of intelligence. 

"There should have been more security measures in place, including the checking of bags, it should always be done, we must not be complacent. Let's not, really, be complacent because anything can happen," he stressed.