Lorenzana: Rebellion in Mindanao not yet subdued

FILE: Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said. (Photo: Delfin Lorenzana/Facebook)

MANILA — Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Wednesday admitted before lawmakers that the rebellion in Mindanao has not yet been entirely subdued.

“Rebellion has not stopped. It just moved to another place,” Lorenzana said during the Congress’ joint session to deliberate on President Rodrigo Duterte’s request for a one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao.

He said that while there is substantial change in the situation in Marawi City following a five-month siege, other groups inspired by the Islamic State (IS) have been consolidating their forces through recruitment, especially in Central Mindanao.

“The situation in Marawi has substantially changed from the time that our troops were fighting the ISIS-inspired Maute group. However, as situations developed later on, the other ISIS-inspired groups… (there are) reports now, (that) they are actively recruiting some of the Muslim youths in the area,” the defense chief said.

Lorenzana, who is martial law administrator, was responding to Senator Franklin Drilon’s query on the basis of extending martial law in southern Philippines despite the pronouncement of liberation of Marawi City from terrorists.

Deputy Executive Secretary Menardo Guevarra, for his part, said that even the courts concluded that “rebellion in Marawi has already spilled over” to other parts of Mindanao.

Drilon questioned the constitutionality of extending martial law, noting that there are only threats at this point instead of an actual state of rebellion.

In his letter dated Dec. 8, Duterte asked Congress to further extend the declaration of martial law in the whole of Mindanao for the entire 2018 to totally eradicate terror threats posed by remnants of IS-linked terrorists and by communist rebels in the region.

He said extending martial law for another year would help state security forces to crush the rebellion in Mindanao and ensure public safety.

Duterte highlighted the different threats facing Mindanao, which were part of the security assessment submitted to Malacañang by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

He said that despite the death of almost a thousand IS-inspired extremists, including their leaders, in the battle of Marawi, remnants of the group and their supporters have continued their recruitment and training of new members “to carry on the rebellion”.