Duterte signs proclamation putting PHL under state of lawless violence  

President Rodrigo Duterte on late Monday afternoon signed the proclamation putting the entire country under state of lawless violence, according to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea.

Duterte signed the one-page document before flying to Laos for the ASEAN Summit, Medialdea said, adding the proclamation is rooted on terrorist threats.

"More on terrorism fight. Iyon lang halos lahat," Medialdea, who is the government's caretaker while Duterte is away, told reporters by phone.

Duterte said he would put the country under state of lawless violence on the wee hours of Saturday, hours after a bomb exploded at a busy night market in Davao City, his hometown, killing 14 people and injuring over 60 others.

Presidential Communications Office (PCO) assistant secretary on foreign and legislative affairs Kristian Ablan told Malacañang reporters that the document Duterte signed is a proclamation of state of national emergency on account of lawless violence.

"It commands the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) to undertake measures permitted by the Constitution and laws to 1) suppress all forms of lawless violence in Mindanao and 2) prevent lawless violence from spreading and escalating elsewhere with due regard to civil and political rights and shall remain enforced until lifted or withdrawn by the President," he said.

Ablan said that the document will be released Tuesday morning as Medialdea, who has the signed copy, was still en route to Metro Manila from Davao City.

Both Medialdea and Ablan allayed fears that the proclamation is a groundwork for martial law, stressing that under the state of lawless violence, no rights will be suspended.

"The public should not be worried. This is just a step-up campaign of the police and the military," Ablan said.  —KBK/JST, GMA News