{"id":191163,"date":"2018-11-26T03:28:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-26T08:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=191163"},"modified":"2018-11-26T03:38:37","modified_gmt":"2018-11-26T08:38:37","slug":"palace-maintains-presidents-mo-32-not-for-ml-not-election-related","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/26\/palace-maintains-presidents-mo-32-not-for-ml-not-election-related\/","title":{"rendered":"Palace maintains President\u2019s MO 32 not for ML, not election-related"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo holds a press briefing for the Malaca\u00f1ang Press Corps (MPC) on Monday, November 26, 2018, at the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malaca\u00f1ang. (Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As critics speculate the President\u2019s recent order to reinforce additional police and military forces in some areas of the country, Malaca\u00f1ang maintained that the directive was issued to address the \u201cseries of acts committed against civilians, against soldiers, and policemen\u201d in the said areas.<\/p>\n

In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo on Monday, November 26, said that this is part of the government\u2019s move to counter any communist program from whatever source.<\/p>\n

This was in relation to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte\u2019s Memorandum Order (MO) No. 32, dated November 22 and signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, that directed the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to deploy more forces in the provinces of Samar,\u00a0 Negros Oriental, Negros Occidental, and the Bicol Region. This, after \u201ca number of sporadic acts of violence have occurred recently\u201d in said areas were \u201ccommitted by lawless groups,\u201d according to the MO.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaraming<\/em> (There are a lot of) incidences of terrorism, of ambushes, of killings, kaya kailangan talagang mag<\/em>-deploy ng mga<\/em> troops doon<\/em> (that is why it is necessary to deploy troops in those areas),\u201d Panelo added.<\/p>\n

In the same press briefing, the media asked the Palace\u2019s reaction to the statements of Senator Panfilo \u201cPing\u201d Lacson and former Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares, with both questioning the motive behind the MO.<\/p>\n

Lacson, a former PNP chief, earlier told dzBB that there was no need to deploy additional forces to the areas, when the government could have just re-deployed soldiers and police from those areas with lesser threats.<\/p>\n

The senator added, behind this order, Malaca\u00f1ang might be planning to declare martial law (ML) or suspend the writ of habeas corpus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell we repeatedly said if there was an intention, it would have been declared, but there is none,\u201d Panelo clarified.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson also stressed to the media that while the move was \u2018not necessary\u2019 for Lacson, for Duterte, as the President, there was a need for it.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, senatorial candidate Colmenares told GMA News Online that the issuance of the MO may be used against the opposition running for the incoming midterm election. Though the Palace immediately denied the allegation, Panelo said that Colmenares \u201cshould be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if it (the MO) has anything to do with that (election), the more Mr. Colmenares should be happy about that, the more we will be securing the area during election time,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe memorandum precisely and expressly says that we should respect the rights of the individual. That Memorandum 32 was done pursuant to the constitutional duty of the President to protect and to serve the people,\u201d he said emphasizing on a clause of the MO.<\/p>\n

Panelo also said that the MO was not just a preemptive move of the government to address the acts lawless violent acts, but \u201ca reaction to what is happening,\u201d reiterating that the directive was to address the \u201cincidents of killings, of ambushes, of destruction or properties in those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As critics speculate the President\u2019s recent order to reinforce additional police and military forces in some areas of the country, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":191167,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-bea-kirstein-t-manalaysay","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191163","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\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}