{"id":179164,"date":"2018-08-29T23:25:16","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T03:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179164"},"modified":"2018-08-29T23:25:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T03:25:16","slug":"medialdea-martial-law-extension-mindanao-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/29\/medialdea-martial-law-extension-mindanao-option\/","title":{"rendered":"Medialdea: Martial law extension in Mindanao an ‘option’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
“It’s an option,” Medialdea told reporters in an ambush interview after the budget hearing of the Office of the President at the House of Representatives. (PNA file photo by Avito C. Dalan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Wednesday said the extension of martial law in Mindanao is an option in the wake of a deadly explosion in Sultan Kudarat.<\/p>\n

“It’s an option,” Medialdea told reporters in an ambush interview after the budget hearing of the Office of the President at the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n

“We’re trying to make it as easy as possible\u00a0na walang ano<\/em>. But\u00a0kung ganito pa rin ang nangyari, anong gagawin natin? Upo lang tayo diyan?<\/em>\u00a0(But if such a thing happened, what will we do? Will we just sit around?),” he added.<\/p>\n

Medialdea said the Sultan Kudarat blast is an ominous development.<\/p>\n

“Yung mga<\/em>\u00a0signs\u00a0na ganito, hindi maganda yan eh<\/em>. Lives in danger\u00a0na lang. Piyesta, pasasabugan lang.<\/em>\u00a0How would you feel? (These signs are not good. Lives are in danger. There’s an explosion during a festival? How would you feel?),” he said.<\/p>\n

Martial law in Mindanao was declared on May 23, 2017 following attacks launched by the Maute Group in Marawi City. Congress, in a special joint session in July last year, granted the extension of martial law until Dec. 31, 2017 at the President’s request.<\/p>\n

The Senate and House of Representatives, convening in a joint session early December, granted President Rodrigo Duterte’s request for the extension of martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus for a period of one year from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2018.<\/p>\n

Two people were killed while over more than 30 others were injured when an improvised explosive device went off in front of J and H Marketing along the national highway in Barangay Kalawag 3, Isulan, Sultan Kudarat at around 8:34 p.m. on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The blast site was brimming with shoppers amid the celebration for the town’s foundation day and its Hamungaya Festival, which began Monday and is set to conclude on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The fatalities were identified as seven-year-old Davy Shane Alayon of Bagumbayan, Sultan Kudarat town, and Lenie Ombrog, 52, of Barangay Kalawag.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Philippine National Police (PNP)\u00a0placed police units in Mindanao on full alert status following the attack.<\/p>\n

PNP Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said a group has already claimed responsibility for the attack but said the police are still conducting post-blast investigation.<\/p>\n

“Unang-una,<\/em>\u00a0mayroong<\/em>\u00a0group\u00a0na nag-<\/em>claim. We believe that it is a terror attack,” he added.<\/p>\n

Military and police sources said they are initially looking at the possibility that the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) was responsible for the attack.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Wednesday said the extension of martial law in Mindanao is an option in the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":123373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-filane-mikee-cervantes","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179164","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179164"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179164\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}