Opposition lawmaker urges Aquino to seek advice from NSC

MANILA, Philippines—House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman is urging President Benigno Aquino III to call in the National Security Council (NSC) to provide him with sound and sober advice on how to stop the rising number of body count from the incursions made by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.

“The President must not rely on the bungling assessment of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process and the amateurish pronouncements of Presidential spokespersons,’’ said Lagman, who noted that the President has yet to  convene the NSC since taking over 16 months ago.

According to Lagman, the NSC would provide the President with a “rational and effective” strategy to “address the escalating carnage being repeatedly committed by MILF rebels against government soldiers and civilians.”

Lagman said the NSC was the best forum to formulate a forceful response to the MILF’s atrocities because its members—such as the Vice-President, the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, the Executive Secretary, the Secretary of National Defense, the Secretary of Justice, the Secretary of Labor and Employment, the Secretary of Local Government, the National Security Adviser, and the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines—were in the best position to provide insights to the President.

Lagman pointed out that Aquino’s mother, the late President Corazon Aquino, issued Executive Order No. 115 in December 1986 to revamp the NSC “purposely to formulate and adopt policies, programs and procedures on all matters pertaining to or affecting the national security so that judgments and actions thereon by the President may rest on sound advice and accurate information.”