Ex-President Gloria Arroyo backs Duterte’s Mindanao martial law

Former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Saturday expressed her strong support for President Rodrigo Duterte's declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

"The war in Marawi caries in it the issue of the declaration of martial law in Mindanao and I'd like to use this opportunity to stand four-square behind President Duterte's declaration of martial law in Mindanao," Arroyo, now Pampanga's 2nd District representative in the House of Representatives, said in her speech during the 52nd Inner Wheel Clubs of the Philippines meeting in Makati City.

“I’ve been president and being president, you have information that others do not have. They help you make a decision but you cannot share all the information with others,” she said.

On May 23, Duterte declared martial in the southern Philippines, hours after Islamic State-inspired Maute group laid siege to Lanao del Sur's provincial capital Marawi City.

"So therefore, it is important that we just trust the president because he knows what we don't know and he knows what he's doing. So let us all support the martial law in Mindanao," she said. 

In supporting the President's move, Arroyo noted that the war in Mindanao is complicated as she recalled her days as the country's chief executive for nearly a decade.

"By time I became president, I inherited a battleground in Mindanao. The rebellion gave ground led by the [Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)] in 1972. And when there was a peace agreement in 1996 the MILF continued the rebellion... and when I became president it became complicated because of the ascendants of international terrorism and religious warfare in 1997," she said.

Arroyo also declared a brief martial in Maguindanao after the infamous massacre in Ampatuan town on November 23, 2009, where 58 people including 32 journalists were killed. 

She also placed the country under state of national emergency as she ordered the military and the police to go after individuals and groups that had planned to overthrow the government in 2006.  —Ted Cordero/LBG, GMA News