(Eagle News)–Mindanao will remain under a state of national emergency even if martial law there lapses.
This is according to Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, who issued a statement hours before martial law was set to lapse at 11:59 p.m. today.
Arevalo said the state of national emergency was by virtue of Proclamation No. 55 which was declared after a bombing incident in Davao City just a few months into the President’s term.
“Our people can then be assured that the Armed Forces of the Philippines will deploy to suppress any and all forms of lawless violence to prevent them from spreading and escalating not only in Mindanao but elsewhere in the Philippines,” Arevalo said.
Martial law was declared in Mindanao in May 2017, after local terrorists overran Marawi in a reported bid to establish an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia.
Martial law was extended at least three times by Congress.
