Monday, January 6, 2020

PNP seeks to clarify list of suspects that have links to terror groups in Mindanao

From the Manila Bulletin (Jan 5, 2020): PNP seeks to clarify list of suspects that have links to terror groups in Mindanao (By Aaron Recuenc)

The Philippine National Police (PNP) wants to clarify the status of the people whose names appeared in the list of those who must be arrested when martial law was declared in Mindanao in 2017.

Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP officer-in-charge, said they will seek clarification on the status of the list of persons to be arrested due to links to terrorism and support network to the Maute Group and other groups sympathetic to international terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).


“We still have to check the validity of that because martial law practically lifted the habeas corpus,” said Gamboa.

More than a hundred people were ordered to be arrested a month after martial law was declared in May 2017 due to the Marawi City siege. More than 60 of them were arrested.

A few months later, nearly 200 others were added to the list– all of them with reported links to terror groups.

With martial law in effect, those in the list could be arrested even without an arrest warrant.

But with the martial law lifted in Mindanao, Gamboa said that the legality of arresting those people must be addressed.


“If that list would still be in effect, what case are you going to file against them?. That is the big question,” said Gamboa.

It would be a different case, according to Gamboa, if those in the list have existing arrest warrant.

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