MANILA, Philippines – Magdalo partylist Representative Gary Alejano has disclosed there was no recommendation from the security officials or the Armed Forces of the Philippines for martial law to be declared in the wake of the clash with the terrorist Maute Group.
Alejano said he obtained the information from his own “trusted sources.”
For his part, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman noted that the recommendation to declare martial law was nowhere to be found in the report that President Duterte sent to Congress.
“Look for it in the report, there was no recommendation about martial law in Mindanao,” Lagman underscore.
On Wednesday at 9 a.m., the House of Representatives sitting as a committee of the whole is to be briefed by representatives from the Executive, defense and security sectors on Proclamation 216, which placed Mindanao under martial law for 60 days, starting May 23.
In his report to Congress, Duterte had said that the “series of violent attacks” of the “Maute terrorist group,” including its May 23 action in Marawi City aimed at cutting off the area from control of the Philippine government, had prompted him to place the entire island of Mindanao under martial law.
The eventual goal, he stressed, was for the group to set up a wilayat (province) covering the entire Mindanao for “DAESH” or the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the recognition of which it had been courting.
The ISIS is known to make it a requirement for local terrorist groups to have a stronghold to be officially recognized, a status that analysts had been saying was needed by the homegrown groups desperate for fresh funding support.
Alejano, a former military officer, said it was important for security and defense officials to reveal to Congress “what’s happening on the ground” that would justify the declaration.
“Even if government would say there was enough intelligence reports about the attacks, the fact that this was apparently not sufficiently addressed and the terrorists were able to occupy Marawi should make someone answerable,” he said.
“Sino ang tatanungin natin? Sino ang mananagot (Who do we ask? Who will be answerable)? I believe that is command responsibility,” he added.
Alejano said he believed the problems in Marawi City could be addressed “by military operation, not by martial law.”
“What really is the intelligence information? If you will project the situation in this magnitude, nakakatakot nga naman (it does look scary). But, I don’t think the problem warrants the declaration of martial law,” he said.
During the fighting between the military and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, he said the government sent in thousands of soldiers, but without having to declare martial law, chiding the President for his “overreaction” in placing Mindanao under martial rule.
“Instead of downplaying the issue, the government ended up promoting Maute in the international stage because the President wanted to justify his martial law,” Alejano added.
