DEFENSE Secretary Delfin Lorenzana confirmed Wednesday that he has submitted to President Duterte his recommendation not to further extend martial law in Mindanao. “It is time to go back to normal,” he said.
Martial law has been in effect over all of Mindanao since the Maute group, supported by the international Islamic State movement, laid siege to Marawi City in Lanao del Sur on May 23, 2017. Since other radical Islamic groups allied with the Maute were active in other parts of Mindanao, it was decided that the whole region be placed under martial law.
The siege of Marawi was declared over on October 23, five months after it began, but martial law was extended to December, 2017. It was further extended to December, 2018, and again to December, 2019, just to make sure. Secretary Lorenzana now says there is no further need to extend it , based on assessments made by the military as well as the police.
Martial law has had a checkered history in our country. It was provided for in the 1935 Constitution and it was used by then President Ferdinand Marcos in 1972, ostensibly to stop a looming Communist rebellion but which many believed was just to allow him to stay in power, as his maximum eight years in office was due to end the next year, 1973. Marcos officially lifted martial law on January 17, 1981, nearly eight years after he signed its proclamation on September 21, 1972. But he retained his decree-issuing powers and the nation remained under what he now called “authoritarian rule” until the EDSA People Power Revolution of 1986 forced him out of office.
The new government led by President Corazon C. Aquino framed a new Constitution which was ratified in 1987 – the one that is in force today. The new Constitution retains martial law but without the extensive powers it once had, and Congress has to review and approve it as well as any extension.
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo used it in 2009 to effect the immediate arrest even without warrants of suspects in the massacre of 57 victims in Maguindanao, including 30 journalists. Then it was proclaimed by President Duterte right after the Marawi siege of 2017 and extended three times.
This month, before the year ends, Congress would have to approve any new extension, but Secretary Lorenzana has decided, in consultation with the military and the police and very likely in talks with President Duterte himself, that there is no further need for martial law.
There are still areas in Basilan and Sulu where groups like the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters are still active, but the government believes it can take care of them without martial law.
Secretary Lorenzana was joined by National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. in the decision against further extending martial law. Thus it should end by the last day of this year, as provided by the last proclamation by Congress.
The Duterte administration is confident that the danger is past and in these next two years, it should be able to carry on its development program for Mindanao – and for the rest of the country – without any further need for the extraordinary powers provided by martial law.
