Sotto: Duterte might call for joint session next week

(Eagle News) — Senate President Tito Sotto on Friday, Dec. 7, said President Rodrigo might call for a joint session of Congress for another extension of martial law in Mindanao.

According to Sotto, the President sent him a message, “saying he might call for it on Wednesday, December 12.”

“But nothing is concrete until I receive his letter,” Sotto said.

According to Sotto, the Armed Forces of the Philippines will give senators a briefing on Monday, Dec. 10.

AFP Chief Carlito Galvez  had said he would recommend another extension of martial law in Mindanao once the same lapses in December.

For this, Galvez noted what he said were the gains in tourism and security, among others, in Mindanao following the declaration of martial law there.

It was President Duterte himself who first asked for the declaration of martial law in the southern part of the country after Maute terrorists overran Marawi in May 2017.

The terrorists were suppressed months later, in October of that year.