Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa. Photo by Neil Arwin Mercado/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—A senator fiercely loyal to President Rodrigo Duterte quickly answered “yes” to a proposal to extend martial law in Mindanao for a fourth time.
Sen. Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa on Friday (July 26) said martial law in his home region, however, can’t last for “eternity.”
“I’m in favor,” he said. “I’m from Mindanao and I know the situation there,” said Dela Rosa, former Philippine National Police (PNP) chief and architect of the now controversial anti-drug campaign “Oplan Tokhang (Knock and Plead)” which is being blamed for hundreds of summary killings.
“I am from Mindanao,” Dela Rosa, one of Duterte’s closest allies, said. “No one can question me if I would be in favor of extension because I felt the positive effects of martial law as far as peace and order is concerned,” he said.
He said he would agree if the military or PNP recommended to Duterte another extension of martial law because he said he believed that criminals and terrorists still roamed Mindanao. An extension of six months to a year was perfectly fine with him, Dela Rosa said.
Duterte in May 2017 declared martial law in Mindanao after homegrown terror groups which had pledged allegiance to Islamic State tried to set up an IS base in Marawi City, leading to a five-month war that all but erased the Philippines’ only Muslim city from the map.
The Constitution limited the effectivity of a declaration of martial law to not more than 60 days or two months. Before the current martial law in Mindanao ended in July 2017, Duterte asked Congress for an extension until December of that year.
The President, for a second time, requested another extension from Congress until December 2018, citing continuing threat and, this time, the communist rebellion in parts of Mindanao.
Duterte, for a third time, again requested for another extension in December 2018 which was swiftly granted by Congress and to last until December 2019./tsb