Military says martial law in Sulu just an ‘option’

The reimposition of martial law in Sulu to restore law and order in the restive province is just an option that the military is not inclined to pursue, the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines said on Thursday.

In a television interview, Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said the reimposition of martial law in Sulu might be slow-going and unnecessary because of the existence of a state of lawless violence in the entire Mindanao and the enactment of a terrorism law.

“The reimposition of martial law in Mindanao is one of the options that we are considering, but what we need right now are measures that can immediately be implemented so we could right away arrest and check activities of terrorist groups operating, not only in Jolo, Sulu, but in the entire island of Mindanao,” Gapay said.

RESPONSE Police cordon off the site where twin bombs exploded on Monday in Jolo town, provincial capital of Sulu. In its pursuit of the suspects, the government will rely on the terror law enacted last month and on the 2016 Proclamation No. 55—issued in the wake of the bombing of a Davao City night market— which placed the country under a state of national emergency due to lawless violence in Mindanao, and is still in effect. —AFP

Proclamation No. 55

“So what we are proposing, while imposition of martial law is an option, is strict implementation of Presidential Proclamation 55, which is still in effect,” he added.

Presidential Proclamation No. 55 is a declaration of a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence in Mindanao, where the police and the military are called upon to undertake measures to suppress that lawless violence.

President Rodrigo Duterte issued the proclamation on Sept. 4, 2016, after a bomb attack on a night market in Davao City that killed 15 people and injured 70 others.

It has never been withdrawn.

Gapay said the conditions set down by the proclamation may be used among other measures to combat terrorism in Mindanao.

“Another thing, we now have the antiterror law of 2020, which will be put to the test since we already have a case now—the twin blasts in Jolo,” he said.

“We are recommending and proposing the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 55, as well as the implementation of the antiterror law,” he added.

He said the reimposition of martial law would take time, as it has to go through a long legislative process.

Immediate action

“What we need now is immediate action … immediate response to this bombing incident in Jolo,” he said.

The implementation rules for the terrorism law have yet to be drawn up, but Gapay said the law had provisions that the military could already use to pursue the perpetrators of Monday’s attack in Jolo that killed 17 people and injured 75 others.

“We have identified the perpetrators and cases are now being built up against the perpetrators, particularly the Abu Sayyaf [to which] the two suicide bombers belong[ed],” Gapay said.