After listening to the briefing of security officials on Tuesday, Senator JV Ejercito was even more convinced that martial law in Mindanao should be extended for another year or even for two years.
“Convinced na ako kahapon, noong isang linggo pa,” Ejercito, member of the Senate majority bloc, told reporters after attending the briefing.
The senator said his main concern was Mindanao’s long problem of loose firearms, which, he said, was not a “conducive atmosphere” for business and tourism.
Authorities, he said, had estimated that the number of loose firearms in the region had reached about 500,000 or as high as one million but only 50,000 firearms had so far been recovered.
“So I think martial law would be able to help address the problem,” Ejercito said.
So when asked if the one-year extension was justified, the senator said: “Yeah. Ako, I think for Mindanao situation, martial law will be well-suited for Mindanao.”
“Tingin ko kahit na two. E ang France nga, two years nang emergency power hindi naman sila nagrereklamo di ba?” he added.
Ejercito also noted how the martial law declaration had paralyzed the “war lords” and private armies in Mindanao. /kga