No need for nationwide Martial Law declaration, there is de facto martial law
No need for nationwide Martial Law declaration, there is de facto martial law
ManilaToday.net
On November 22, Rodrigo Duterte said there is no need to declare Martial Law nationwide. This is the nth time he said this. But his Memorandum Order 32, which is patterned in Martial Law in Mindanao, is not short of a martial rule. Ordered in the memo were redeployment of Armed Forces in the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police Special Action Forces (PNP-SAF) in Bicol, Negros and Samar to quell “lawless violence.”
In 2001, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declared a “state of lawless violence” covering the island of Basilan. It resulted to the arrest of 121 people suspected of being members of Abu Sayyaf. Seventy-three of them were brought in Bicutan, Tugig City. Some were already dead and some are still in jail ”despite of overwhelming evidence of innocence.”
His government officials talked of proposing another martial law extension in Mindanao (now 17 months old) and pushed for shutting down of social media accounts which they deem ‘inimical to national interest. Vilification of nationalist and progressive organizations, party lists and churches and church organizations have been part of his breathing.
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