Senator Panfilo Lacson said he would support President Rodrigo Duterte if he declared martial law, but only in areas where the communist New People’s Army operates with impunity and without regard for the ongoing public health crisis caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
“In fact, I will encourage a no-nonsense military offensive against them,” said Lacson who was a former chief of the Philippine National Police.
But Senator Francis Pangilinan said martial law didn’t end the insurgency during the Marcos years, and would not do so now.
“Besides the immediate and pressing problem today, the enemy at the gates today is COVID-19,” he said.
During this time, he said the government should focus on helping millions of people in their communities who are hungry and not on the rebels in faraway mountains.
READ: Duterte threatens martial law if Reds hamper aid
He pointed out that COVID-19 is the country’s most serious problem nowadays and not an insurgency.
“Stop pushing your iron fists because they can’t kill the virus,” he said.
Instead, he said, a public health strategy like what Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam did should be the solution and not martial law.
Meanwhile, Solicitor General Jose Calida has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a petition seeking the release of detained communist rebels.
Calida, on April 24, asked the court to dismiss a petition for lack of merit, saying «to grant the petition would result in grave injustice not only to the people of the Philippines but also to the surviving relatives of petitioners› victims who are still waiting for justice to be finally served.”
The petition, he said, «is one that involves perception and deception», noting that while the petitioners in the suit claim to be political prisoners, they are actually under detention for non-bailable offenses.
READ: Martial law-type ECQ loom
"Contrary to their claim, there are no humanitarian considerations involved but merely opportunistic legalism to distort established judicial processes," Calida said.
The petition filed on April 8 by the Public Interest Law Center and the National Union of People’s Lawyers was on behalf of 22 prisoners.
It also asked the Court to compel the government to create a Prisoner Release Committee, similar to those set up in other countries, to urgently study and implement the release of all other prisoners in various congested prisons throughout the country, in view of the COVID-19 threat.
READ: Task force eyes partial easing of transport ban
Also on Sunday, a military spokesman said the Army has deployed almost 13,000 personnel nationwide to help the Philippine National Police in enforcing the Enhanced Community Quarantine.
Army Public Affairs Office chief Col. Ramon Zagala told a radio interview that the 12,600 soldiers were tasked to focus on the implementation of the ECQ.