Philippine police say they are confident that they have found "the truth" of what happened during a disastrous operation against one of the world's most wanted Islamic militants that left 44 police commandos dead, officials said Thursday.

Forty-four police commandos were slaughtered by Muslim rebels in a cornfield in the southern Philippines during a high-risk raid that also reportedly killed alleged Malaysian bomb-maker Zulkifli bin Hir, who goes by the alias "Marwan".

Indonesia said Thursday it had rejected an offer from Australia to pay the cost of life imprisonment for two drug smugglers if they are spared the firing squad, as Jakarta signaled the executions might not take place for weeks.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made the offer in a letter to her Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi as Canberra explores all avenues to convince Jakarta not to execute the Australians, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran.

The disaster-haunted Philippines is likely to be hit by stronger typhoons this year as warming ocean surfaces contribute to a dry spell, the state weather service warned Wednesday.

The Asian archipelago, whipped by about 20 typhoons and storms each year, is now in the grips of the "El Nino" phenomenon that can make storms "stronger" and more "erratic", weather service chief Vicente Malano said.

A key defendant in the worst political massacre in the Philippines, which saw 58 people murdered, has been freed on bail, the court trying the case said Tuesday.

The court granted the provisional release of Sajid Ampatuan on Monday, ruling against the government which wants him kept in prison along with more than 100 other suspects in the 2009 slaughter.

Four Filipinos, an Austrian and four other foreigners were abducted in an attack on a Libyan oilfield last week, official sources said Monday, after an assault blamed on Islamic State jihadists.

Eight guards were killed in the surprise attack on the southern oilfield of Al-Ghani on Friday, the Libyan unit tasked with protecting oil installations has said.

Philippine troops have killed 56 Islamic militants including one described as "foreign-looking" who may be among terror suspects sought by the United States, the military said Monday.

The military launched the operation against the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) last month in a marshy, farming region on Mindanao island, where Muslim rebels have for decades fought for independence.

A disastrous raid on alleged Islamic militants has ignited the worst political crisis yet for Philippine President Benigno Aquino -- and questions about the extent of any U.S. role in the operation are deepening his discomfort.

Some Philippine lawmakers are asking whether the U.S. military played a leading role in the operation in January, which ended with 44 police commandos dead in a field in the country's Muslim-majority south.

Hundreds of Muslim rebels lined up in the Philippines Saturday to register as voters, keeping faith with a 2014 peace pact that was thrown into doubt after 44 policemen were killed in a botched terror raid.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels, unarmed and wearing civilian clothes, had their photographs and fingerprints taken at a government building in the southern town of Sultan Kudarat to qualify for voter identification cards.

Officials say poverty worsened in the Philippines in the first half of 2014 due to a rapid rise in food prices and the lingering effects of a killer typhoon

Socio-economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said Friday that poverty incidence among Filipinos rose 1.2 percentage point to 25.8 percent in the first half of last year from the same period in 2013.

Around 4,000 Filipinos remain in Libya despite the North African country's perilous security situation, staying put for higher salaries in spite of the risks presented by rival armed groups to migrant workers, the Philippines said Thursday.

Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman Charles Jose told Agence France Presse "(The) reason for staying is mainly economic," adding that "4,000 still remain".