Gov’t allays fears on rights abuse

Malacañang assured the nation yesterday that the government would respect people’s rights during the indefinite implementation of a state of emergency to prevent lawless violence throughout the country.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea allayed fears of possible abuse of authority by the uniformed services in light of the issuance of guidelines for the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

“The purpose of this is to ensure respect for the protection of the fundamental rights – of

civil and political rights – of our citizens when we issued that circular,” he said.

The Palace has issued Memorandum Order No. 3, providing guidelines for the AFP and the PNP in the implementation of measures to suppress and prevent lawless violence.

He said in a radio interview that the guidelines seek to implement coordination among the Department of National Defense (DND), PNP and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in the immediate deployment of additional forces on the ground.

Meldialdea has been designated as head of the caretaker committee while the President is on working visits in Laos and Indonesia.

Increased police visibility

The public should be prepared to see increased presence of police and soldiers in major streets and thoroughfares as well as in crowded places, including malls and train stations.

Medialdea reiterated that Presidential Proclamation No. 55, which declared the state of national emergency on account of lawless violence, is open-ended.

Unlike martial law, he said the President does not need to report to Congress about his move.

“It’s in our Constitution – martial law for 60 days and lawless violence, no dates indicated. Maybe because this is a lesser measure as there are no civil rights suppressed,” he said.

“Time judgment of the President if he thinks it has normalized… the people would return to their various units if needed,” Medialdea said.

Presidential communications assistant secretary for legal affairs Ana Marie Banaag stressed that the memorandum order actually puts limits to what the AFP and the PNP may do under the state of emergency.

Banaag read the copy of Memorandum Order No. 3 – guidelines for the AFP and the PNP in the implementation of the state of emergency.

“So, as you can see we put a premium on civil rights and we’d like to emphasize that the proclamation... Proclamation 55 is not meant to undermine the Bill of Rights,” Banaag said in a press briefing at Malacañang.

Banaag allayed fears of possible abuse of authority from the uniformed services in the light of the issuance of the guidelines.

Before flying to Vientiane on Monday, Duterte signed Proclamation No. 55 placing the entire country under a state of national emergency on account of lawless violence triggered by the Davao City bombing that killed 15 people last Friday.

Section 1 of the guidelines stated: “The Department of National Defense and the Department of the Interior and Local Government shall coordinate the immediate deployment of additional forces of the AFP and PNP to suppress lawless violence and acts of terror in Mindanao and prevent such violence from spreading and escalating in the country.

“The DND and the DILG shall deploy AFP and PNP personnel on major streets and thoroughfares, as well as near crowded places such as malls and train stations, in order to increase troop and military visibility for deterence and quickresponse purposes, without causing undue alarm to the general public,” the MO read.

Banaag said the MO was “issued in order to delimit what the AFP and PNP can do. We put a premium on civil rights.”

Reading from the MO, Banaag said: “No civil and political rights are suspended during the existence of a state of lawless violence.”

To ensure the effective implementation of the memorandum, local government units are enjoined to give their all- out support and utmost cooperation.

AFP training

The AFP has ordered the training of soldiers who will be deployed to help the police enforce the state of emergency to prevent human rights violations.

Col. Edgard Arevalo, AFP spokesman, said as directed by AFP chief Gen. Ricardo Visaya the soldiers will have to undertake the mandatory Troop Information and Education (TIE) training prior to deployment.

The training includes lectures on human rights and guidelines for soldiers in Western Mindanao, Eastern Mindanao and National Capital Region.

“The lectures will cover what the proclamation entails and how this translates to the AFP,” Arevalo said.

He added that the TIE would also lay down guidelines on how the soldiers will perform their specific tasks related to Proclamation 55.

The soldiers’ tasks, he said, include but are not limited to conduct of checkpoints, foot or mobile patrols, enforcement of curfews whenever and where necessary in tandem with the PNP.

In subjecting soldiers to TEI, Arevalo said they would be equipped with proper information and knowledge management when they’re on the ground.