MARTIAL law is meant not only to address local terrorist groups in Mindanao, but also to crush communist rebels and illegal drug syndicates, the military admitted Wednesday.
Contrary to earlier claims by Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that the communists had nothing to do with President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration, Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr. said that one of the military’s key tasks under martial law is to degrade the capabilities of the New People’s Army.
“They [the communists] issued a directive [to] heighten attacks against the police and the Armed Forces. That was just an answer to that. If there were no declaration then that would not have been a problem,” Padilla said.
He described the martial law move against the communist rebels as a “tit for tat” measure against their order to the NPA to intensify attacks on police and soldiers.
The military spokesman, however, said the inclusion of communist rebels among targets of military rule in Mindanao “does not necessarily mean we are stopping the peace talks.”
“Actually the NPA and the Armed Forces are in a talk-and-fight and fight-and-talk situation. But it would have been more desirable to have the silencing of the guns when the peace talks [are] ongoing,” he said.
Duterte declared martial law over Mindanao on May 23, after Maute group terrorists overran Marawi City.
The list of key tasks includes instructions to “degrade the armed capabilities of NPA,” referring to the communist armed wing New People’s Army, whose leaders in the Communist Party of the Philippines were talking peace with the government.
Duterte over the weekend asked communist rebels to cease fighting with government troops after recent attacks put their sincerity during peace talks under a cloud of doubt.
Labor Secretary and government chief peace negotiator Silvestre Bello III said that government and the National Democratic Front are eyeing the resumption formal peace talks by August, after the fifth round of talks were called off in May amid a backlash over Duterte’s martial law declaration.
To increase the chances of successful formal talks, Bello added that the two panels will hold informal talks in the third or last week of July.
Lorenzana, meanwhile, said they would need a couple more weeks to determine if an extension of martial law was necessary.
“We will know in a couple of weeks. After that we will make our recommendations [as] we are still studying the situation in Marawi, Lanao del Sur and the rest of Mindanao,” Lorenzana said in Filipino on Tuesday.
While the government hopes to resolve the Marawi City siege in time for President Rodrigo Duterte’s State of the Nation Address on July 24, Lorenzana said he would leave it to the ground commanders to determine the pace of their operations.
“We are not micromanaging the events there,” the Defense chief said.
Padilla said the military would use certain parameters to determine if they would seek an extension of martial law, including how long the extremists held out in Marawi City.
The administration scored a victory on Tuesday after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao and his suspension of the writ of habeas corpus there.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said that Duterte’s martial law declaration would be deemed terminated unless Congress affirms the need to extend it before July 23.
“If Congress does not extend on the 60th day upon initiative of the President then there can be no extension. Another proclamation is necessary,” he told reporters in a text message.
Panelo added that the government did not expect the ISIS-inspired Maute group and other local terrorists to be strong enough to withstand an almost two-month offensive by the military.
Philippine National Police chief Ronald dela Rosa said Tuesday he had spoke with Armed Forces chief Gen. Eduardo Año during a Cabinet meeting in the Palace, and said both of them were inclined to recommend an extension of miltary rule.
Dela Rosa said the situation in Marawi had “not totally stabilized” and that an extension of martial law could cover the rehabilitation phase.
“Things may vary as days go by. We don’t know if things will get better tomorrow and we’ll no longer have problems there. Why would we need to extend [martial law] if there is no longer a problem?” he added.
More lawmakers on Wednesday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling upholding Duterte’s Proclamation 216 which declared martial law in Mindanao at the onset of the Maute terror group attack on May 23.
At the same time, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said the House of Representatives is ready to coordinate with the Senate if the President wishes to extend the imposition of martial law in the South to solve terrorism.
But the leftist Bagong Alyansang Makabayan on Wednesday called on the people to resist martial law in Mindanao as well as any attempt to impose martial law nationwide. With Maricel V. Cruz and Sandy Araneta