A military intelligence report submitted to an opposition lawmaker has allegedly repudiated claims by President Rodrigo Duterte that “rebellion persists in Mindanao.”
Rep. Edcel Lagman (KJ ROSALES / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said Maj. Gen. Fernando Trinidad of the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) made this revelation in a report submitted to the solon’s office on December 13, 2018.
According to Lagman Trinidad was relieved from his post four days after sending him the report. The military official was replaced by Brig. Gen. Pablo M. Lorenzo.
“Only in the Philippines does rebellion exist without a single rebel,” stressed Lagman in a press statement released Saturday.
Lagman said Fernando reported that ‘for the entire year that martial law was extended over Mindanao, “not a single person had been captured, arrested or charged with rebellion.”
While four persons were arrested, not one of them was charged with the crime of rebellion, disclosed the opposition solon.
Lagman said the report contradicted the claim of Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benjamin Madrigal, Jr. before Joint Session of the Congress that during the second extension a total number of 143 individuals were arrested and all were charged with rebellion,” Lagman stated.
“It is unmistakable that no one was apprehended or indicted for rebellion because in fact rebellion, which is an armed uprising against he government for the purpose of removing the country or a portion thereof from the allegiance to the Republic, does not actually exist,” Lagman pointed out.
The report was one of the documents submitted by Lagman and members of the House Magnificent Seven to the Supreme Court where a petition questioning the legality of the second extension of Mindanao martial law has been filed.
The seven opposition lawmakers decried the recent extension of martial law as “void” for being unconstitutional.
Congress voted to approve Duterte’s martial law order in Mindanao, a second extension that started in 2017 when Maute rebels placed Marawi City under siege.
Aside from Lagman other signatories of the 46-page petition were Reps. Tomasito Villarin (Akbayan Partylist); Teddy Baguilat, Jr., (LP, Ifugao); Edgar Erice (LP, Caloocan City); Gary Alejano (Magdalo Partylist), who all belong to the Magnificent 7 opposition group.
Also signing as petitioners were Reps. Christopher Belmonte (LP, Quezon City) and Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao (LP, Dumagat Island).
The petitioners asserted that the Resolution of Both Houses No. 16 dated 12 December 2018 mocks the 1987 Constitution because:
(1) Rebellion does not exist and persist in Mindanao;
(2) Public safety is not imperiled;
(3) Another year of extension unduly prolongs the martial law regime; and
(4) Proclamation No. 216 which originally imposed martial law a suspended the writ in Mindanao has become functus officio and cannot anymore be extended.
https://news.mb.com.ph/2019/01/05/military-intel-report-contradicts-dutertes-reason-to-seek-martial-law-extension-lagman/
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