President Rodrigo Duterte may declare martial law in Negros Oriental over the spate of killings in the province.
“Grabe na ‘yung patayan doon. We have a village, or a barangay captain, a municipal mayor, four policemen, and a lawyer. The President doesn’t want this to happen. He wants it stopped and the only way to do that is to use his emergency powers,” Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a Palace briefing on Thursday.
Panelo made the statement in a Palace news briefing, where he said the President would likely invoke emergency powers "soon."
The President had mentioned his plan on dealing with Negros violence in his speech at the National Security Council and National Intelligence Coordinating Agency anniversary on Wednesday night, July 31.
Asked if which emergency power the President would invoke, he said, “He has many options under the Constitution. He can call the Armed Forces to quell lawless violence, he can declare martial law.”
A martial law declaration, said Panelo, would be "separate" from his current declaration covering Mindanao and lasting until December this year.
The President would "certainly" declare martial law if its declaration was recommended by security officials, said the spokesman.
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said he so far has made no such recommendation.
NEGROS KILLINGS. Church and rights groups join the families of the victims of the killings in Negros Island in an indignation rally on July 27, 2019, in Quezon City. Photo by Mark Saludes/Rappler
It was not the first time for Malacañang to raise the possibility of a martial law declaration in the Visayas.
A day after he declared martial law in Mindanao following the terrorist siege on Marawi on May 23, 2017, Duterte had said that he might expand martial law to the Visayas and Luzon if the threat of the terrorist Islamic State (ISIS) persists.
He later modified this to a suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in Visayas if terrorism reached the region.
Duterte's plan for Negros was in response to the spate of killings in Negros Oriental, where a total of 21 people were killed from July 18 to 27. These include a lawyer, a barangay captain, a city councilor, a former mayor, and a one-year-old child.
Back in November 2018, Duterte had issued Memorandum Order No. 32 deploying more cops and soldiers to Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental, aside from Samar province and Bicol.
The order cited "sporadic acts of violence" committed by "lawless groups" and directed military and police to "prevent such violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the country."
Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, said Duterte could declare martial law only in Negros Oriental “because the Constitution says you can declare martial law in the entire country or part thereof.”
He said the President would “certainly” follow the security officials if it would recommend martial law in Negros Oriental.
“Certainly. He always follows the advice of those people in the know,” he said.
Found this article interesting? Share it with your friends! 👍🏼
This article first appeared on Rappler & Inquirer.net.
No comments:
Post a Comment