Solon: Panelo’s martial law remark is for ‘mind conditioning’

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Chief presidential legal counsel Salvador Panelo’s remark likening the pandemic to “invasion” which could serve as ground for a martial law declaration is a form of “mind conditioning for public acceptance,” a lawmaker said Tuesday.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro reiterated that martial law is not needed to address the pandemic, as she called Panelo’s remark as an “absurd interpretation of the Constitution.”

“Last week, it was the presidential spokesperson’s list of heroes among soldiers and police killed in action, without a word about the real heroes in hospitals, our doctors, nurses, and thousands of health workers, or the war veteran killed by police. Now, it’s the presidential legal adviser coming up with an absurd interpretation of the Constitution to equate “invasion”  to a virus,” Castro said in a statement.

“This administration is attempting to convince the public that strongman rule is always the solution for any problem it fails to solve,” she added.

Castro said that martial law is not necessary to conduct mass testing especially of health workers, the elderly, and other vulnerable sectors.

Martial law is likewise not needed for contact tracing, said Castro.

“Hindi dapat baliktarin ang civilian supremacy at gawing military rule—Matulungan ba nito ang LGUs na makapagtayo ng testing and isolation centers?” Castro said.

(They should not twist civilian supremacy and make it a military rule—will it help LGUs to establish testing and isolation centers?)

“Susunod ba ang mga sundalo sa mga governor, mayor, at iba pang local officials sa implementasyon ng quarantine ordinances halimbawa, o baliktad ang mangyayari? Mabibigay na ba ang pinangakong ayuda sa mamamayan kung ipaubaya sa mga sundalo at pulis ang cash, food, and non-food aid?” the lawmaker added.

(Will soldiers follow  governor, mayor, and other local officials in the implementation of quarantine ordinances or will the opposite happen? Will constituents be given the promised assistance if cash, food, and non-food aid will be handed to soldiers?)

The lawmaker reiterated that the issue of the coronavirus crisis is a “public health problem requiring urgent public health solutions.”

“By no stretch of the imagination—legal or otherwise—can the administration justify declaring martial law amid the COVID crisis. Atty. Panelo shouldn’t even try,” she said.

Speaking over his television program on the state-run PTV network on Monday, Panelo noted that there is an “actual invasion of the coronavirus” that would have justified the President’s declaration of a martial law.

“It can mean the entry of a disease and transfer from one area to another. Tandaan po ninyo, ano bang meron ngayon? There is an actual invasion of the coronavirus disease which is pandemic. It threatens, in fact, the entire country and lahat ng kababayan natin,” Panelo said.

Panelo, who previously served as Duterte’s spokesperson, noted the definition of “invasion” is no longer limited to other nations using armed forces to occupy a country.

JPV