(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte will “certainly” declare martial law in Mindanao if local authorities and the military make the recommendation Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Thursday, Aug. 1.
According to Panelo, the President “always follows the advice of those people in the know.”
Panelo made the remark amid a spate of killings in the province that saw the provincial police director relieved from his post.
On Tuesday, July 30, Panelo said the President warned he would use his emergency powers “to quell the lawless violence engulfing the island, as well as to crush all forms of threats aimed to destroy the government.”
The Palace has said more people support the New People’s Army in the province.
On July 18, four policemen were killed allegedly by NPA rebels in Ayungon.
Two days after President Duterte visited the wake of the policemen, lawyer Anthony Trinidad was shot dead by unidentified men in Guihulngan City.
His wife, though injured, survived the attack.
“Grabe na ‘yung patayan doon…The President doesn’t want this to happen,” Panelo said.