MANILA - Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno on Monday defended Proclamation 1959 declaring martial law in Maguindanao saying President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's declaration of a state of emergency last November 24 was not enough.

“I personally have been against going into any kind of martial law situation,” said Puno, in a press briefing organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP). (Read: Arroyo orders martial law in Maguindanao)

Philippine National Police (PNP) Police Director Andres Caro said the government was left with no choice when armed rebels positioned themselves in 16 of the 22 Maguindanao towns that “crippled government action."

These towns, Puno said, are under the control of Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr.’s family, and the positioning of the rebel armed groups hindered any legal action against Ampatuan Jr.. 

The positioning of the rebels followed the arrest of Andal Jr. for a complaint he faced in connection with the massacre of at least 57 people in Maguindanao last November 23, said Caro.
 
He said that the rebels are Civilian Volunteer Organizations (CVOs) who are not authorized to carry firearms but are tasked to help in public emergency situations, calamities and other cases wherein public safety is needed to be secured. They are under the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).

“All these forces switched their allegiance to the (Ampatuan) family,” Puno said. “They became instruments in violation the laws of the land." These rebels no longer follow the chain of command from the AFP.
 
“The issue of ‘multiple murder’ is not the same as martial law,” Puno said. Martial law was declared because of the “emergence of rebellion that began when Ampatuan Jr. was arrested,” he added.

‘Developments’ after martial law

Puno said that without the declaration of Martial Law, armaments and falsely-labeled “Police” vehicles would not have been recovered by the government because they were not granted search warrants by the local courts in Maguindanao. 

“We needed to enter the areas where there were visible, for example armaments, where there were armaments that were known to be deposited… None of those would have been recovered if not for martial law” he said.

The AFP dug up arms about a kilometer away from the residence of Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. during the emergency period, prior to the declaration of martial law, Puno said.  

“It was very clear that there is a strong possibility that it was transferred from the residence from the area in which it has been buried,” he said.
 
Puno also cited an incident wherein they applied for 11 search warrants to investigate the Maguindanao massacre. “After more than a week none had been issued. During0 the entire period of emergency, only one of the search warrants was granted,” he said. 

The warrant granted was for the search of a police officer’s residence in Cotabato City . The police officer “is presumed to have joined the rebel group,” said Puno. 

Because of martial law, the writ habeas corpus was also suspended, so the government was able to arrest former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.

“Those are really the situations that needed to be handled, that could not be handled by a state of emergency,” he said. 

Rebels crippled government?

President Arroyo cited several grounds for the declaration of martial law in her written report to the Congress, Sunday.

In the president’s report, it said that the Ampatuans were behind the closing of government offices and the simultaneous absences or non-appearance of judges in local courts.

Maguindanao Representative Didagen  Dilangalen on Monday said that it was presence of soldiers in Shariff Aguak and other towns in Maguindanao that prompted government offices to shut down operations.

“It's not the LGUs [local government units] that closed it, it was the soldiers,” he said. Dilangalen’s daughter is related to the Ampatuans by marriage. (Read: Dilangalen asks SC to nullify martial law in Maguindanao)

Justice Secretary Devanadera, however, failed to establish that the Ampatuans were behind the inaction of government offices and judges.

“They are not moving, there were no hearings,” Devanadera told the FOCAP. “The judges are connected with the Ampatuans."

Police Director Caro said that other than the closing of government offices, the local civil registrar of Maguindanao refused to accept the registration of death certificates of the victims, “purportedly upon the order of Andal Ampatuan Sr.,” he said.

After the arrest of Ampatuan Jr., Caro said they discovered 2,413 armed combatants in possession of 2,000-plus firearms including armored vehicles, light machine guns, bazookas and mortars.

Puno said that they still had to check whether the firearms have licenses.

Overt act of rebellion

Having armored vehicles which do not belong to the AFP or the Philippine National Police (PNP) but are painted with the word "pulisya" or police is already considered rebellion, he said.

Possession of vehicles not authorized by the Republic of the Philippines is proof that a separate army other than the AFP is being established, which could be seen as rebellion, he said.

Puno said rebels do not need to declare verbally or in writing that they are rebelling against the government.

“If you shoot at somebody or prevent legal authorities to enter certain parts of the country, that speaks for itself,” he said, referring to the actions of the rebel groups.

Puno also said that there have been shooting incidents and actual firefights between the private civilian armies and “uniformed men.”

He said that the civilians are a “new rebel armed group that has been organized to go against the government.”

Lifting of martial law

Martial law would be lifted “as soon as possible,” Puno also said.

CVOs and the Special CAFGU Armed Auxiliary (SCAAs), even in other provinces in Mindanao, are being reviewed by the PNP in coordination with the Commission on Elections. If they are in areas that have been declared by hotspots by the Comelec, they will be disarmed, Puno told reporters in an ambush interview after the FOCAP press briefing. 

Still undisclosed provinces in Mindanao would be subject to “total revamp of police auxiliary and the CAFGU (Citizen Armed Force Geographical Unit)-CAA (Citizens Armed Auxiliary) structure.” 

Of the 2,000 plus CVO rebels, half already allowed themselves to be demobilized, Puno said.

When the government is able to limit the rebels in an area “that is manageable,” and if the remaining 1,000 rebels-at-large submit themselves within the law again, it would be possible that martial law would be lifted, he said.

Puno said that they would also be required to surrender unauthorized firearms.

However, Puno stressed that the lifting of martial law in Maguindanao would ultimately depend “on the judgment of the ground commanders," and "it should be in a situation wherein it would no longer put in the danger the republic.”