Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s proposal to extend martial law in Mindanao.
“If it comes to our chamber, I will recommend that we pass it,” Arroyo said Tuesday of the President’s request that martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao be extended a year, to Dec. 31, 2019.
Arroyo said she would support the President’s call to extend martial law “as long as it is needed.”
The House and the Senate will hold a joint session today (Wednesday) at 10 a.m. to decide on the President’s request for martial law.
Arroyo said her personal experience as president who declared martial law in Maguindanao in 2009 was her basis for supporting military rule in Mindanao.
The Palace has asked for the extension by citing the continued terror threat.
Senator Richard J. Gordon, meanwhile, said he will likely support the President’s call for a third extension of martial law in Mindanao following a military briefing on the situation in the south.
Gordon said that aside from wanting to ensure the complete rehabilitation of Marawi City, which was torn apart by the armed conflict, he has received reports that Mindanaoans feel safer with martial law imposed.
He added that there were also no reports of abuses since martial law was imposed in Marawi City after the siege.
“I don’t hear an outcry in Mindanao… In fact, my friends tell me they’re okay with martial law, and that they feel safer with it,” Gordon said in a mix of English and Filipino.
“My position is that the President is more knowledgeable because he has the intel. Is he using it badly? I don’t think so. Martial law is working well,” Gordon added.
Marawi civic leader Samira Gutoc disagreed, however, and spoke out against the third extension.
“Martial law has failed in social service delivery. It has failed to secure justice for most Moro. It is a blunt instrument against a civilian population,” Gotoc, an opposition candidate in the 2019 midterm polls, said in a statement.
“Hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples, farmers, Muslims, workers, and other sectors from Mindanao remain displaced and remain prevented from returning to their homes,” she added.