/ AFP PHOTO / MANMAN DEJETO
(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte signed on Monday (September 5) a proclamation putting the country under a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence.
The President signed the proclamation before leaving for Laos for the 28th and 29th Asean summits.
The Presidential Communications Office said the proclamation “technically took effect today and remains in force until lifted by the President.”
It was early Saturday (September 3) that Duterte declared a state of lawlessness nationwide, hours after the deadly blast in the Roxas night market that killed 14 people and wounded around 70 others. He said he would later put this into formal writing.
The declaration commands the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) to undertake measures allowed by the Constitution and laws to suppress all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao, including the prevention of lawless violence from spreading in other parts of the country.
The President stressed that the state of lawlessness was not martial law, and that fundamental and civil political rights would still be in place. There will also be no suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.
There will be intensified checkpoints and intelligence monitoring nationwide as the Philippine National Police declared a full alert status for the whole country starting Saturday.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines was likewise on alert nationwide.
Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said the proclamation is more focused on preventing terrorism in the country, and stopping any terror threat.
The military is currently on an intensified campaign to crush the Abu Sayyaf group which is suspected of having hand in the Sept. 2 Davao blast.
PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa said he is also not discounting the possibility that affected drug lords and the Abu Sayyaf connived with each other in the Davao blast.
The police said it now has leads on the suspects behind the bombing incident.