Concom adds ‘lawless violence’ in grounds for declaring martial law

MANILA -- The Consultative Committee (Concom) tasked by President Rodrigo Duterte to review the 1987 Constitution has voted to add “lawless violence” as one of the grounds to declare martial law in the proposed federal Constitution it is drafting.

Concom member and retired lieutenant general Ferdinand Bocobo said that there will now be three grounds for the declaration of martial law namely invasion, rebellion and lawless violence.

Bocobo, who proposed the inclusion of the phrase “lawless violence”, said that this could refer to both terrorism and violent extremism.

“In the original provisions of the grounds for the declaration of martial law, it’s just rebellion or invasion but because of the events in present time and perhaps in the future where we [might] have lawless violence, so we inserted the word lawless violence,” Bocobo said in a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC).

“Lawless violence means terrorism and violent extremism,” he added, noting that this term will be explained and its parameters defined in the proposed Constitution’s annotation.

Bocobo said that the term “widespread lawless violence” was initially proposed but “widespread” was eventually dropped since lawless violence may not necessarily be widespread but still endanger

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