(Eagle News) — The Palace on Friday, Jan. 3, said a state of national emergency should remain in Mindanao despite the expiration of martial law there on Dec. 31, 2019.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the national emergency, declared by President Rodrigo Duterte through Proclamation No. 55 on Sept. 4, 2016, should be “strictly observed by the (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and (Philippine National Police) to ensure the maintenance of law and order in all other parts of the country, given that there remains the communist insurgency to reckon with, as well as there is yet a terrorist organization resurrecting to be crushed.”
The President made the declaration following the Sept. 2, 2016 bombing in Davao City that killed 14 people and seriously wounded at least 60 others.
According to Panelo, the state of national emergency can remain because “as long as the President deems it necessary to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion (such as at present times), then he is lawfully authorized to resort to this calling-out power.”
Panelo was referring to one of three extraordinary powers granted to a president by the 1897 Constitution: the calling-out of the armed forces.
The other two powers are the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and the placing of any part of the country under martial law.
“The Office of the President asks the citizenry for their usual cooperation, even as we assure them that the government will not allow any abuse of their fundamental civil and political rights during this state of national emergency,” Panelo said.
Earlier, the AFP, through its spokesperson Brigadier General Edgard Arevalo, said Proclamation No. 55 would remain in place in Mindanao.
He issued the statement hours before martial law was set to lapse at 11:59 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2019.
The President declared martial law in Mindanao in May 2017, after local terrorists overran Marawi in a reported bid to establish an Islamic caliphate in Southeast Asia.
“Our people can then be assured that the (AFP) 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 had said.
