Palace slams Agence France-Presse, Inquirer over 'misleading' martial law headline

Malacañang on Friday slammed what they called a “misleading” headline about President Rodrigo Duterte's plans to declare martial law nationwide posted by an international news agency and carried by a local online news site.

“The misleading header on ‘martial law’ by Agence France Presse (AFP), which was irresponsibly repeated by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on September 15 was a tacky trick to attract readers’ attention,” presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a statement.

“It is clear from the press briefing that as per Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, PRRD would declare martial law if and when protest action led to anarchy and disrupt the civilian government. I hope this clarifies the matter,” he added.

Abella was referring to an AFP story with the headline, “Duterte may declare martial law next week —Lorenzana.” It was reposted by Inquirer.net.

Inquirer later revised the story and added an editor's note: “We are reposting this story to correct and clarify the story by AFP we published earlier.”

Other international sites such as Channel News Asia, The Strait Times, and South China Morning Post also carried the same wire story.

During the briefing, Lorenzana talked about Duterte's supposed plan to declare martial law, but noted that it would only happen if protests get out of hand. He also downplayed the possibility that it would happen. —JST, GMA News