MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Saturday imposed martial law on Maguindanao province in Mindanao, which resulted in the immediate arrest of at least five more members of a powerful and influential clan implicated in the massacre of 57 people two weeks ago.
In a hastily-called press briefing in Malacanang Saturday morning, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita disclosed that President Arroyo issued a proclamation imposing military rule for a maximum of 60 days in Maguindanao, a component province of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
Ermita said the proclamation, signed by President Arroyo on December 4, also suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus as well as authorized warrantless arrests and the detention of massacre suspects for at least three days.
But under the proclamation, Ermita said, martial rule does not cover the areas where the members of the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) are present as part of the ongoing peace negotiations between the government and the rebel group.
The proclamation cited several compelling issues which prompted President Arroyo to impose martial law in Maguindanao.
Among others, it pointed out that heavily armed supporters of the powerful and influential Ampatuan clan have been massing with the potential to launch a rebellion against the government.
Moreover, the proclamation said that due to the massacre, tension has risen which resulted in the failure of delivery of basic services from local government units as well as breakdown in the judicial system in the province, like the lower courts.
With the declaration, the executive secretary said the President appointed Lieutenant General Raymundo Ferrer, the head of the Eastern Mindanao Military Command (Eastmincom) as the “military governor.â€
However, Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government, assured that Ferrer would discharge such functions only after the designation of civilian officials who will run the local government units as well as the ARMM regional government which covers, aside from Maguindanao, the provinces of Lanao del Sur, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi as well as Marawi City.
This is because the military and police have arrested at least eight officials, including five members of the powerful Ampatuan clan for their alleged involvement in the massacre of 57 people in the town of Ampatuan on November 23, according to Puno.
Among those massacred were the wife of the scion of a political rival of the Ampatuans, his two sisters and 30 Mindanao-based journalists who were on their way to file a certificate of candidacy for governor before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) office in the capital town of Shariff Aguak.
The Ampatuans are known political allies and defenders of President Arroyo whose rise to power in Mindanao coincided with her accession into Malacanang following the ouster of then president Joseph Estrada in January 2001.
The military identified the five clan members arrested as the patriarch, former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan, his sons Zaldy, the governor of ARMM; Anwar, the mayor of Shariff Aguak; Akmad, the vice governor of Maguindanao; and Rajid, the acting governor of Maguindanao.
The military said the clan patriarch has been rushed to and is now confined in a private hospital in Davao City, also in Mindanao, after he was complained of dizziness and chest pains.
Another clan member, Mayor Andal Ampatuan Junior, the son and namesake of the patriarch, is now detained at the National Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Manila after he was tagged by the -police as the alleged mastermind in the massacre.
However, General Ferrer and Puno also assured that a province-wide curfew would not be imposed and that media would have unrestricted movements as well as free access to information and other news.
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