No return to one-man rule, Palace assures public

Malacañang on Thursday allayed concerns of a return to a dictatorial rule after the government secured Congress' nod for a one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao to subdue terror and rebel groups.

At a press briefing, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque made a comparison between the martial law declared by President Rodrigo Duterte and former President Ferdinand Marcos, who imposed martial rule nationwide from 1972 to 1981.

Marcos' martial law was marked by massive human rights violations such as killings and enforced disappearances committed by state forces.

"I think we have shown for the entire period that martial law has been imposed in Mindanao. That this is not the same martial law that we had in 1972. Courts remain functioning, Congress remains existing, the Bill of Rights and the Constitution are enforced," Roque said.

"So I don’t think there’s been any legal basis for the fears of many that there will be the return of dictatorial rule, neither has there been any systematic or gross violations of human rights so far," he added.

Roque said no local government unit has complained that their mandates have been violated in the course of the implementation of the martial law in Mindanao, which Duterte imposed on May 23 in response to militants who laid siege to Marawi City and were trying to establish a caliphate for international terror group ISIS.

The Palace then challenged critics to present proof that martial law in Mindanao has paved the way for human rights violations committed against peasant and indigenous groups. 

"Again, these groups need to go beyond sloganeering. They need to actually submit evidence so that authorities can investigate and punish the perpetrators," he said.

A human rights lawyer, Roque said it is the state which has the obligation to investigate, prosecute, and punish those involved in rights violations.

"Unless they file a complaint, we would not know," he said.

Since the declaration of martial law on May 23, human rights group Karapatan said it has recorded at least 29 victims of "extrajudicial killings" in the Mindanao, 15 of them were in southern Mindanao.

"Many of the victims were members of local peasant organizations and affiliates of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) who were targeted for their local campaigns for genuine agrarian reform and against militarization," Karapatan said in a press statement on December 11, two days before the Senate and House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law until December 31, 2018. 

Karapatan also said it documented 15 cases of torture, 23 victims of "frustrated extrajudicial killings," 58 victims of illegal arrest and detention, 335,686 victims of indiscriminate gunfire and aerial bombings, and forced evacuation of 401,730 individuals. — RSJ, GMA News