No need to fear martial law, army tells Filipinos

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said the deploying additional troops to the provinces of Samar, Negros Oriental and Occidental and the Bicol region to suppress lawless violence is not a prelude to a creeping martial law in the country.

“It’s to ensure that our people are safe, our communities are safe and our countryman can freely go about their lives and experience a better life),” AFP Spokesman Brig. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a press briefing at Camp Aguinaldo, Quezon City.

Proclamation No. 55 issued by President Duterte on September 4, 2016 declared a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence in Mindanao and called out the Armed Forces and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to suppress any and all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao in response to the 2016 Davao City bombing.

Arevalo said MO 32 “is not for any other reason but only to ensure that we are doing our job as a government in our capacity as Armed Forces.”

In a statement, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said, “The Palace views with concern the growing number of sporadic acts of violence that have recently occurred in various areas of the country, particularly in Samar, Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and the Bicol Region, which have been committed by lawless groups.”

Among the “acts of lawlessness” reported in Negros Oriental, Panelo said were the torching of heavy equipment in Manjuyod, strafing of the house of the barangay chairman, attack of police detachments, and the killing of a police chief in separate occasions in Guihulngan.

In Negros Occidental, Panelo enumerated the lawless incidents, namely the “attack against the 62nd Infantry Battalion while conducting clearing and combat operations in preparation for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections in Kabankalan and the massacre of nine farmers in Sagay.”

Panelo, meantime, assured that the military and police have been reminded to respect and give due regard to the rights of persons in the latest peace and order campaign.