Local execs favor extension of ML in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY -- Officials on Tuesday urged President Rodrigo Duterte to extend the martial law in Mindanao not just for one more year but until his term ends in 2022.Members of the Lamitan City council said they do not oppose an extension of the martial in Mindanao that the President declared immediately after the May 23, 2017 siege of Marawi City by combined Maute and Abu Sayyaf terrorists.One of them, the outspoken councilor Joaquin Puri, Jr., said Tuesday it is hypocrisy for lawmakers residing outside of Mindanao to oppose an extension of the martial that most residents in the region are in favor of. The security situation in Basilan has improved as a consequence of the massive implementation of infrastructure projects by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao in the past six years and the enforcement of martial law since 2017.Why rock the boat? Keep it on, Puri said.Puri said the presiding officer of their Sangguniang Panglungsod, Vice Mayor Roderick Furigay, and his wife,Rose, who is Lamitan City’s incumbent mayor, are both avid supporters of the martial law in Mindanao. It is saddening to hear members of the Senate and the House of Representatives who are not from Mindanao talk a lot against an extension of the martial law without even considering that most Mindanaons are for it. Silly, so silly, Puri said.The Furigay couple, seeking reelection for third and last terms in tandem, separately said Tuesday they have drafted resolutions last month expressing favor for an extension of the martial law, slated to end on December 31, 2018.Vice Mayor Furigay, who is of mixed Yakan and Zamboangueño descent, said the martial law will help ensure peaceful local and midterm elections in May 2019 in Mindanao’s politically troubled areas. We have seen improvements in the investment climate of Lamitan City as a result of the martial law so it must be extended, the vice mayor said.Vice Mayor Furigay said they will not oppose a Mindanao-wide martial law co-terminus with the June 30, 2022 end of the Duterte presidency.Local executives in Maguindanao, where there is presence of Islamic State-inspired blocs, are also in favor of an extension of the martial law.Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu, presiding chairperson of the inter-agency Maguindanao peace and order council, said Tuesday he and members of the league of mayors in the province are not opposed to an extension of the martial law. The enforcement of martial in the province since 2017 resulted in the speedy settlement of more than a dozen deadly clan wars involving big clans and the military’s collection of more than a thousand unlicensed firearms from people in the province, Mangudadatu said.He said the martial law also restrained political warlords from bringing with them heavily-armed escorts when they go around. It will hasten the enforcement by the Commission on Elections of the ban on carrying of firearms as the campaign period comes near, Mangudadatu said.Mangudadatu said an extension of the martial law can also ensure the completion of high-ticket government infrastructure projects in hostile territories. In Maguindanao, the martial law helped instill discipline among people who love to move around carrying unlicensed guns as `status symbol’ and to intimidate political adversaries, he said.Magudadatu said he has not heard any of Maguindanao’s 36 town mayors speak against an extension of the martial as proposed by President Duterte. We are all behind the president on that regard. Kahit ituloy-tuloy na ni Pangulong Duterte hangang matapos ang kanyang termino eh okey lang sa amin, Mangudadatu said.