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:: The vice president of the Philippines expressed hope on Monday for a swift end to an urban siege by rebels, and offered support to displaced civilians during a visit normally conducted by a president not seen in public for six days.

The trip by Leni Robredo to an evacuation center in Balo-I for residents who escaped a month-long conflict in nearby Marawi City adds to speculation about the health of 72-year-old President Rodrigo Duterte, whose absence this month from the public eye is the longest since he took office a year ago.

Known for a packed public schedule and marathon speeches several times a day, Duterte’s disappearances during what has been the biggest crisis of his presidency will add to frequent rumors he is in poor health, which his office denies.

Robredo made no mention of Duterte during her visit, when she said she hoped life for the nearly 250,000 people displaced by fighting between troops and rebels allied with Daesh could soon return to normal.

“All of us are hoping that the fighting will soon end so the people can go back to their respective homes,” she told reporters. “The government has been doing everything that we can. We can only hope that this will end soon.”

Duterte’s spokesman did not respond to a request for comment on his lengthy absence.

Salvador Panelo, a longtime friend of Duterte’s and his top legal adviser, said the president was as “strong as a bull” and would attend a public event and meet cabinet members on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a Roman Catholic priest abducted by militants has been seen alive, the military said Monday, as troops pressed on with their offensive.

Air and artillery bombardment of enclaves occupied by the militants in the largely Muslim city of Marawi resumed after an eight-hour truce Sunday to allow residents to celebrate the end of the Ramadan fasting month.

Fires erupted and plumes of dark and white smoke billowed against a blue sky as the bombs slammed into their targets, journalists in Marawi said.

But military spokesman Lt. Col. Jo-Ar Herrera said the militants were also deliberately burning houses and using improvised bombs, booby traps and hostages as human shields to delay the troops’ advance, five weeks into the fighting.

Hundreds of gunmen flying the black flag of Daesh occupied parts of Marawi on May 23, triggering bloody fighting that has claimed nearly 400 lives according to an official count.

Father Teresito “Chito” Suganob, a Catholic priest assigned to Marawi, was taken hostage along with some parishioners early in the siege on the largely Catholic Philippines’ most important Muslim city.

Herrera, spokesman for the military forces in Marawi, said the priest had been seen alive on Sunday in a part of the city still in the hands of the extremists.

“We don’t have details of his health. We were just told that he was sighted alive,” he told reporters in Marawi, citing accounts from civilians rescued from the battle zone.

He also said there were about 100 civilian hostages still in the hands of the gunmen, being used as “human shields,” ammunition carriers and stretcher-bearers.

Most of Marawi’s 200,000 residents have fled the fighting and the lakeside city, a favorite summer vacation destination in the south due to its cool climate, is now a ghost town.

Fighting resumed with renewed fury on Monday, with government fighter jets and other aircraft seen carrying out bombing attacks while sustained bursts of gunfire could be heard.

“Our offensive operations have resumed and will continue so we can liberate Marawi at the soonest time possible,” Herrera added.

He said the bodies of two militants believed to be from the Middle East because of their physical features were found at the scene of an earlier airstrike, another sign that foreign fighters had joined the battle.

“These foreign terrorists involved in the hostilities are bomb experts. They are the ones facilitating the rigging of the buildings and houses with bombs,” Herrera said.

Eight foreign fighters, including those from Chechnya, Indonesia and Malaysia, were killed in the early days of the battle, the government has said.

In May Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Marawi and the southern region of Mindanao to quell what he described as a rebellion aimed at establishing an Islamic State caliphate in the area.

Herrera said they were still trying to confirm reports that Isnilon Hapilon, a veteran Filipino militant said to be the leader of the Daesh group in Southeast Asia, had escaped Marawi despite a military and police cordon.

An attempt by troops to arrest Hapilon in Marawi on May 23 triggered the rampage by the militants.

Hapilon was indicted in Washington for his involvement in the 2001 kidnapping of three Americans in the Philippines. He has a $5 million bounty on his head from the US government and is on its “most wanted” terror list.

The army has said it was checking reports that Omarkhayam Maute and Malaysian militant Mahmud Ahmad, both leaders of the Marawi offensive, had been killed in the fighting.

Col. Edgard Arevalo, a Manila-based military spokesman, said two other militants leaders — Maute’s brothers Abdullah and Madi — are still alive.

The pair met with peace emissaries during the truce on Sunday to discuss the release of hostages, he added.

The Maute brothers are leaders of the Maute Group, which joined forces with Hapilon’s Abu Sayyaf faction to carry out the Marawi attack. Both groups have pledged allegiance to Daesh.

Fleeing residents and some local disaster officials believe many more civilians may have been killed while trapped in areas battered by artillery and air strikes, and infested with Maute snipers. Witnesses have reported seeing bodies in the streets for days, some decomposing.

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