MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte requested Congress on Friday to extend the martial law in Mindanao for one more year.
Duterte heeded the recommendation of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said, citing Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.
Senate President Vicente Sotto III said Duterte was planning to call on Congress to convene in a joint session Wednesday next week, Dec. 12 to decide whether or not to grant the extension.
“He (Duterte) sent me a message saying he might call for it on Wednesday, Dec. 12. But nothing is concrete until I receive his letter,” Sotto said. “Monday morning, (the senators) have briefing with [the] AFP on the extension.”
For her part, House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said she would recommend to her colleagues to grant the request for a third extension of the military rule in the southern region.
Earlier General Carlito Galvez Jr., Armed Forces chief of staff, said their recommendation to extend the martial law was based on feedback from the Regional Tactical Operations Center, local government units in Mindanao and the Commission on Elections.
“There is really a clamor for the extension, considering that the terrorists are still lurking in the area,” Galvez had said.
Some of the bases for the recommendation, he previously said, were the blast in Basilan, encounters in Sulu and bomb explosions in central Mindanao.
Duterte placed the entire Mindanao under martial law on May 23, 2017 after the Maute group, a local organization of Islamic State-affiliated terrorists, laid siege on the Muslim city of Marawi.
Congress already extended the martial law twice, with the last one set to expire by the end of the year./PN
