For Maguindanao: Guardians group seeks temporary martial law

CEBU, Philippines - Coinciding with yesterday’s observance of the 29th year of the EDSA People Power Revolution, the Guardians Brotherhood Incorporated issued a statement urging President Benigno Aquino III to declare a temporary martial law in Maguindanao province.

Lawyer Joel Obar, GBI’s OIC national president who is based in Dumaguete City, clarified though that the statement was not in any way involved in any mass action, coup d’etat or calls for the president to resign.

The president should strictly enforce a gun ban in Maguindanao and, if necessary, ask Congress to authorize him to declare a temporary martial in that province, he said.

Obar thought Congress and the Filipino people will support a temporary declaration of martial law in Maguindanao, instead of demanding for the resignation of Aquino and be replaced by Vice President Jejomar Binay.

The GBI official said the proposal, espoused by Makabayan party-list and the National Council of the Clergy, to put up a multi-sectoral council to take over the help of government has no constitutional basis.

The best thing to do now is to urge Aquino to make firm decisions because he is the only one who can correct now the things that were wrongly done or institute remedial measures to avoid a repeat of the Maguindanao incident, he said.

Obar said that while the president had pushed for the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, many sectors, including the GBI itself, have asked him to suspend talks on that proposed law at this time.

The peace talks however can continue but for these to be credible, Obar said Aquino must first replace government representatives in the panel because they (peace adviser Secretary Teresita Deles and negotiator Miriam Coronel Ferrer) were already “eaten up by the system of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front” and are now perceived to be talking in behalf of that group.

“Deles and Ferrer may have good intentions but they have outlived their usefulness in this endeavor,” said Obar.

Obar added that to give justice to the murdered Gallant 44 (not Fallen 44) of the Special Action Force, the government should “institute criminal and administrative proceedings against those who were involved and who committed a crime or administrative misfeasance and administrative malfeasance” against the police, the military or the MILF members. (FREEMAN)