Palace says additional troop deployment to ‘support,’ not to take over provinces

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo. INQUIRER file photo

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Friday clarified that President Rodrigo Duterte ordered more troop deployment to some provinces in the country to provide the needed “support” for local government units there amid what it called “a wave of lawless violence” in the area.

Panelo issued the remark in defense of Duterte’s Memorandum Order 32 which asked the police and military to deploy more law enforcers in the provinces of Samar, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental and in the Bicol region.

“If the civilian government cannot handle it, then there’s a need for support. And even if they can handle it, there’s a need for support coming from the PNP (Philippine National Police). That’s exactly the job of the PNP and the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) – to suppress lawless violence,” Panelo said in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel.

Asked to clarify if the troops will be there to just “support” and not to “take over” the provinces, Panelo said: “Definitely, yes. Of course.”

In a separate statement, the Palace official enumerated incidents of lawless violence in the aforesaid places in the past months which prompted Duterte to issue MO 32

READ: Duterte sends more troops in Bicol, Samar, Negros vs ‘lawless violence’

Panelo said these incidents include “killing and ambush of uniformed personnel, attacks on police stations, torching and destruction of equipment, the massacre of civilians and murders of local officials.”

In Samar, the Palace cited the ambush of soldiers providing relief to victims of a typhoon, an armed attack at the police station in Lapinig, an ambush attack against the 63rd Infantry Battalion in Matuguinao, and an assault on the former mayor of San Jose de Buan.

READ: Alleged NPA members raid police station in N. Samar; 2 cops hurt

“We have also witnessed acts of lawlessness in the province of Negros Oriental such as, but not limited to, 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,” Panelo said.

In the province of Negros Occidental, Panelo noted 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 the nine farmers in Sagay.

READ: 9 sugarcane workers gunned down in Negros Occidental

Meanwhile, in the Bicol Region, the Palace noted a series of instances of lawless violence which include the ambush of the convoy of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Nela Charade Puno in Camarines Sur, firefights in Lagonoy, and clash in Bato, among others.

READ: FDA chief’s convoy ambushed; 3 cops killed

Panelo, who is also Duterte’s chief legal counsel, explained that MO 32 is in accordance with the Duterte’s Proclamation No. 55 which declared a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence and ordered the police and military not just to suppress lawless violence in Mindanao but also to prevent them from spreading and escalating elsewhere in the country./ac