MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Edcel Lagman (Albay) on Tuesday said that he will challenge the government’s supposed move to extend martial law in Mindanao for yet another year.
Speaking at ANC’s Early Edition, Lagman said that they are going to question the proposed move “because a third extension will unduly and inordinately prolong the regime of martial law in Mindanao.”
Lagman and other opposition lawmakers opposed Duterte’s Proclamation 216 that placed the entire region of Mindanao under martial law for 60 days in 2017.
They also challenged the subsequent year-long extension of martial law, but the SC upheld the constitutionality of both orders by the government.
READ: SC upholds constitutionality of martial law in Mindanao | SC upholds yearlong extension of martial law in Mindanao
Gen. Carlito Galvez Jr., Armed Forces of the Philippines chief, said on Monday that local government units, regional peace and order councils and others agencies support the proposal to extend martial law in Mindanao.
Director General Oscar Albayalde, Philippine National Police chief, said that the police force is with the AFP in seeking an extension.
READ: AFP, PNP back another year of martial law
‘Extension is groundless’
But Lagman said that the proposal is not backed by legal grounds cited in the 1987 Constitution.
The STAR reported that Galvez said there is a clamor for to extend martial law for at least one more year, citing the continuing threat “lurking” in Mindanao.
But Lagman argued: “The grounds cited by the military chief [Galvez] that there is public clamor for the extension is not a constitutional ground.”
“Popular clamor, if it exists, is not a ground for the extension of martial law,” he said in the interview.
The Constitution provides that the president may suspend the privilege of habeas corpus or declare martial law “in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it.”
Lagman also stressed that terrorism does not equate to rebellion.
“Threat of terrorism, like imminent danger of rebellion, has been obliterated in the Constitution,” he pointed out.
“Rebellion does not persist in Mindanao, a third extension is completely groundless,” he added.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo, meanwhile, said that Duterte might be persuaded to seek for another year-long extension due to the support given by different sectors.
“The President will always evaluate whatever recommendations the AFP and the PNP will give him. But given the support of martial law in Mindanao, even by a Catholic bishop and the citizens there, the President may be persuaded to grant, to approve their recommendation. But of course, again, that is the prerogative of the President,” Panelo said at Monday's press briefing.
Support from sectors, likewise, is not a ground for martial law or its extension cited in the Constitution. — Kristine Joy Patag