Reasons to extend martial law

It is very unlikely for President Digong to express support for Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Caesar Dulay over his feud with his deputy for legal affairs, Clint Aranas, who is investigating him for possible collusion with a big tax delinquent.

A report by another paper (not the Inquirer) that said the President was backing Dulay most likely came from a spin doctor.

That report would go against the President’s public expression of disgust over corruption.

That report is absurd, to put it mildly.

Aranas is accusing Dulay of making multinational Del Monte pay a “pittance” of P50 million when it owed the BIR P80 billion in taxes.

Why would the President take Dulay’s side when the case involves a huge revenue loss allegedly due to corruption?

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Dulay was the President’s roommate at the YMCA dorm in their student days in the 1960s, probably the reason he was given the juicy post.

Dulay was an ordinary labor lawyer before he joined the Duterte administration, according to my sources.

On the other hand, Aranas is a brilliant tax lawyer who had a thriving practice defending clients in tax cases when he answered Digong’s call to join his administration, the same sources said.

So, dear readers, who would you believe between the two: Dulay or Aranas?

A congressional inquiry will start next week on Aranas’ accusation that Del Monte was given a sweetheart deal by the BIR in paying its tax obligation.

During this probe, Aranas might come out with evidence to prove his accusation against Dulay and his alleged cohorts at the BIR.

As they say in Tagalog, Abangan!

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Contrary to the claim by the Armed Forces, the situation in Marawi City will still get worse before it gets better.

The President went to Marawi against the advice of his security aides and saw for himself the real situation in the city under siege.

“If it’s my time, it’s my time. I can’t leave my soldiers there. I have to be with them. I cannot just go to Marawi City when they would be in a celebratory mode. I have to show my face to my soldiers,” the Commander in Chief said shortly before boarding a helicopter that took him to Marawi.

The President could not go out of Camp Ranao where he landed because it was too dangerous.

Despite the military’s claim that the terrorists were down to a hundred men, there are many, many more armed men—either sympathizers or members of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups—who are holding out.

People who are observant notice the absence of able-bodied men among the Muslim evacuees from Marawi in various evacuation centers in Iligan City and other places.

Why? Because they have joined the terrorists in Marawi!

The armed Maute sympathizers among the Maranaws should not be allowed to get out of Marawi lest they wreak havoc in other parts of the country.

Therefore, Congress should extend martial law in the whole of Mindanao.