PNP chief also cool to martial law

MANILA, Philippines - The boy was rounded up by the forces of the Marcos dictatorship and threatened with a firing squad, while his impoverished father suffered beatings.

That boy, now all grown up and the nation’s top cop, is therefore cool to becoming an enforcer of military rule.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa reassured the public yesterday that he would never advise President Duterte to declare martial law despite security concerns.

A child when martial law was declared, Dela Rosa said he was also aware of the horrors of military rule, recalling an incident when he and some friends were “apprehended” by elements of the defunct Philippine Constabulary (PC) for breaking the curfew.

“We were made to line up and they showed us a machine gun and threatened us with firing squad. But it was just a threat,” Dela Rosa said.

He added his tricycle-driver father suffered beatings by state security forces during martial law.

He also related incidents of passengers of overloaded buses being ordered to get off and made to climb trees.

“That’s martial law for me. Do you think, I myself will advise for (the re-imposition) martial law?” asked Dela Rosa.

However, he stressed that if martial law is declared, he knows how to implement it without stepping on people’s rights.

“If there would be martial and I will be ordered to implement it, I know what to do so as not to violate human rights because I myself was a victim. I know martial law very well,” he said.

The raising of terror alert to level 3 has sparked fears that President Duterte is setting the stage for a declaration of martial law. The raising of terror alert came on the heels of a foiled bomb plot near the US embassy. Police have arrested two suspects in the foiled terror attack.

The police, taking a cue from their military counterparts, arrested two suspects behind the foiled US embassy bombing.

The two, Rayson Kilala, a balik-Islam and Jiaher Guinar, are reportedly members of the IS-inspired Maute group. 

Three of their colleagues have reportedly gone back to Lanao del Sur.

Earlier, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said that the military operations against the Maute group and the recovery of a bomb near the US embassy were not enough basis to even suspend the writ of habeas corpus.

Conflicting warning

National Security Adviser (NSA) Hermogenes Esperon Jr., meanwhile, clarified yesterday that level three alert on terror covered only Mindanao and not the entire country, as announced earlier by Dela Rosa.

Esperon made the clarification as Vice President Leni Robredo asked the authorities to clearly explain the basis for declaring the highest terror alert.

“We do not just raise terror alert, we should give the people the basis for declaring it so not to cause undue fear among them,” Robredo said in an ambush interview in Pasay City.

She said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the PNP were even contradicting each other on the country’s security situation.

“The PNP said there’s a threat but the AFP said there’s none. I think whoever is saying that there is, we deserve to know the basis. It’s not something we can take lightly,” she said.

AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla said they have yet to receive any information that would warrant raising terror alert levels.

The AFP, he said, remains on white alert because the police have the situation under control with the arrest of the foiled bomb plot in Manila. He said the AFP has a different alert system from the PNP. -Christina Mendez, Helen Flores