Former President Benigno Aquino III recalled on Wednesday the time he considered declaring martial law in Sulu to address the terrorist threat in the island province in Mindanao but did not push through with it after his military commanders said it would have very minimal impact in the pursuit of the Abu Sayyaf.
“I spoke with the security sector [that time] and I asked if it [martial law] would help them,” Aquino told reporters in Filipino. “But they said it seemed that it would only give marginal help in Sulu at that point in time.”
Aquino contemplated declaring martial law in Sulu several weeks before he stepped down from office on June 30 last year.
The Abu Sayyaf had executed Canadian nationals Robert Hall and John Ridsdel whom they kidnapped along with Norwegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipino Marites Flor.
The terrorist group had set a deadline for the payment of ransom for the two but it was government policy not to give in to terrorist’s demands.
Sekkingstad and Flor were released following negotiations initiated by allies of then President-elect Rodrigo Duterte.
Aquino’s attendance on Wednesday at the launch of the political almanac, Politiko365, was one of the rare moments he was seen in public after leaving office.
Journalists took the chance to ask him to comment on President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in the wake of the attack in Marawi City by the joint Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups, who would want to be recognized as part of the Islamic State.
Aquino declined to give any statement on his successor’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, saying he had yet to receive full information on what took place in Marawi City.
The information on the fighting in Marawi “was quite sparse,” Aquino told reporters.
“How can we say if it was right or wrong if we don’t have the complete information with us?” he said.
Duterte has yet to transmit his martial law proclamation to Congress, which will vote jointly on whether to approve or to revoke the proclamation, with a majority vote of all its members.
Aquino recalled that his administration built the necessary infrastructure to help in the development of Basilan to address the security situation in the island province.
The former commander-in-chief described Sulu “as a very different matter.”
“The Abu Sayyaf has been embedded for so long [in the province],” Aquino said. “Their relatives are in place, there is little support [for the security sector] from the LGUs. In Basilan, it’s the reverse. The community really helped in addressing the situation.” /atm