On another part of Mindanao, fighting between government troops and pro-Islamic State militants for control of Marawi City has entered its fifth week.
"They have withdrawn, they are no longer there". The school area is safe, " Gen Padilla told a news conference in Manila, adding troops were pursuing the attackers.
"They were taking advantage of the situation that we have a very lightly defended outpost and that they think our forces are elsewhere in the province", Padilla said. He said no children had been taken hostage.
The Philippine military said Islamist militants who had holed up in a primary school in the south early on Wednesday had retreated after a gunbattle with troops but were holding some civilians hostage.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is battling with about two hundred (200) suspected members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) in Pigcawayan, North Cotabato.
Mr Mamon said: "We can confirm that they occupied a school and there were civilians trapped".
"I hope this will be resolved peacefully and I hope there will be negotiations for the sake of the people they are holding hostage", he said on the local GMA television network.
Tropical Storm Cindy comes ashore in southwest Louisiana
Heavy rain and some flash flooding have been reported already along the Gulf Coast since Tuesday , but more is on the way. The Texas Department of Transportation says all state roads and bridges are open in the area.
Padilla said the incident at Pigcawayan was not related to the fighting in Marawi.
Some commanders of the BIFF have also pledged allegiance to the Maute Group.
They are on the same island, but there is as much as 190 kilometres separating Pigcawayan from Marawi city.
Last month, about 500 bandits seized Marawi, a mosque-dotted center of the Islamic faith in the south of the predominantly Roman Catholic nation. As of Tuesday, some 258 militants, 65 security forces and 26 civilians had been killed in the city, according to the military.
Duterte has said politicians, including some linked to the illegal drug trade, may have covertly backed the militants, who stockpiled arms and supplies before launching their audacious plot in Marawi.
The attack has sparked fears that the Islamic State group, while losing territory in Syria and Iraq, may be gaining a foothold in Southeast Asia.
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