PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said Martial Law remains an option to quash the protracted rebellion and spread of narco-money funding terrorism.
“I am not a fan of martial law. I’m a lawyer. The people are afraid of Martial Law. But if ever, Martial Law is a continency to meet widespread violence,” Duterte said in a dinner with reporters.
“Mindanao is in a state of rebellion. If you go south, there is no guarantee that you can go there to Tawi-Tawi,” he added.
while holding the Philippine flag. He gestures in his speech during the oath-taking ceremony of the
newly-elected officers of the Malacañang Press Corps, Malacañang Cameramen Association, and
Presidential Photojournalists Association in Malacañan on September 26. REY BANIQUET/PPD
Last month, the President said it was not possible for him to declare Martial Law even as he admitted that there have been instances when he was tempted to do so to address the worsening drug problem in the country. “Sometimes, I’m tempted really to declare martial law. But that’s not possible, so fine. That’s why I declared a state of lawlessness, because narcopolitics has entered my country,” Duterte said.
During a “mini” Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council meeting on Monday night, Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III said the President wasn’t serious about suspending the writ of habeas corpus.
Earlier, Pimentel and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, both allies of the President, had told him he would have to justify suspending the writ of habeas corpus before Congress would sign off on it.
But Duterte said narco-politics continues to threaten the country, with one political family that he declined to name amassing more than P5.9 billion from drugs.
“They are in elective positions. They were able to parlay their influence,” Duterte said.
The Palace again sought to soften Duterte’s message, saying that a declaration of Martial Law was not imminent, and that the President was only warning of continuing lawlessness in Mindanao.
“There is no imminent declaration, unless there are necessary conditions,” said presidential spokesman Ernest Abella.
“He’s underlining our awareness and necessary consciousness of the growing impunity of certain groups [in certain areas of Mindanao],” he said.
Lawmakers meanwhile said the President can always declare Martial Law as long as there is a justifiable reason.
“Why not? As long as the following condition exist, in case of invasion or rebellion and when public safety requires it,” Ako-Bicol party-list Rep. Alfredo Garbin said.
But Garbin said he believes the President was merely joking when he said so.
“The problem is such specified conditions as required by our Constitution does not exist in the prevailing circumstance. So he might just be joking,” Garbin said.
Representatives Rodolfo Albano III of Isabela and Jericho Jonas Nograles of PBA party-list shared a similar view.
“It is always an option because it is provided in the Constitution,” Albano, House Majority Leader for the House contingent of the Commission on Appointments, said.
Senator Antonio Trillanes IV on Wednesday ridiculed President Duterte for saying that Martial Law was a “contingency to meet widespread violence.”
Trillanes also reminded Duterte that he said he would resign if he did not eradicate the drug problem in three to six months.
Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III noted that Duterte’s statement on Martial Law was “merely an idea or an option, not a decision.” With Maricel V. Cruz and Macon Ramos-Araneta