Malacañang sends martial law proclamation to Congress
Malacañang has transmitted to Congress Proclamation No. 216, President Duterte’s declaration of martial law and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao.
The House of Representatives received a copy of the two-page martial law proclamation at 10:26 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Senate received a copy of the proclamation earlier than the House, at 9:53 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Inquirer obtained a copy of the proclamation and the transmittal letter from House Majority Floor Leader Rodolfo Fariñas.
Reasons for declaration
In his proclamation, Mr. Duterte said martial law in Mindanao would be in effect for 60 days.
The President says he was prompted to declare martial law in all of Mindanao because the Maute terrorist group’s attack in Marawi City in Lanao del Sur province on May 23, particularly the terrorists’ flying the flag of Islamic State (IS) group in several places, is an attempt to wrest the city’s allegiance from the Philippine government.
It is also an attempt “to deprive the Chief Executive of his powers and prerogatives to enforce the laws of the land and to maintain public order and safety in Mindanao, constituting the crime of rebellion,” Mr. Duterte says.
The proclamation states that the Maute group “has taken over a hospital in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur, established several checkpoints within the city, burned down certain government and private facilities and inflicted casualties on the part of government forces.”
60-day period
Mr. Duterte says that as the “attack shows the capability of the Maute group and other rebel groups to sow terror and cause death and damage to property not only in Lanao del Sur but also in other parts of Mindanao,” he is declaring “a state of martial law in the Mindanao group of islands for a period not exceeding 60 days,” effective as of May 23, and suspending the “privilege of the writ of habeas corpus” on the island “for the duration of the state of martial law.”
Mr. Duterte signed the proclamation in Moscow on May 23.
National emergency
Mr. Duterte also mentions in his martial law declaration that “part of the reasons” for his issuance of Proclamation No. 55 in September last year are “the series of violent acts committed by the Maute terrorist group such as the attack on the military outpost in Butig, Lanao del Sur, in February 2016, killing and wounding several soldiers, and the mass jailbreak in Marawi City in August 2016, freeing their arrested comrades and other detainees.”
Proclamation No. 55 is a declaration of a state of national emergency “on account of lawless violence in Mindanao.”
