AsiaPacificReport.nz
Philippines Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella announcing President Duterte has declared martial law on the southern island of Mindanao. Video: Rappler
Pacific Media Centre News Desk
The martial law in Mindanao which President Rodrigo Duterte has declared will be no different from martial law during the time of Ferdinand Marcos, the President said before flying back to the Philippines, reports Rappler.
President Duterte flies back to the Philippines after declaring martial law for the whole of Mindanao island. Image: Presidential Office“Martial law is martial law ha. It will not be any different from what the President, Marcos did. I’d be harsh,” said Duterte, Rappler said citing the Facebook live video of Presidential Communications Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson.
He was speaking on board the presidential plane just before it took off for Moscow for Manila.
“I was asked how I would deal with terrorism. I said I’d be harsh. I told everyone, ‘do not force my hand into it,’” he added.
Reports from the Islamic city of Marawi in Lanao del Sur, Mindanao, said about 100 militia from the rebel Maute group had attacked the city and were reportedly holding hostage a priest, a college professor, and at least three other people following the ISIS-linked group’s raids that began yesterday.
-Partners-
Bishop Edwin dela Peña of the Prelature of Marawi revealed this today.
“They were taken hostage to an undisclosed location. We have not heard anything about them,” dela Peña said in an interview with radio dzBB.
Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson did not elaborate on the short video but did mention the likely timeframe of his martial law declaration.
“How long? Well, if it would take a year to do it then we’ll do it. If it’s over in a month I’d be happy,” he said.
Fire rages in Marawi City yesterday after an attack by the Maute Group. Image: Twitter @attysaminaThe Constitution says it should not initially exceed 60 days – any extension has to be approved by Congress.
Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella himself earlier said it would last 60 days.
Section 18, Article VII of the 1987 Philippine Constitution says that the President, as commander-in-chief, may “in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it” suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the country under martial law. The writ safeguards individual freedom against arbitrary state action.
Dark period
Duterte is the third Philippines president to declare martial law since 1972, when Marcos declared one – a dark chapter in Philippine history that was marked by abuse, violence and corruption.
On December 5, 2009, then president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared martial law in Maguindanao, also in the southern Philippines, through Proclamation 1959, following the massacre of 58 people – mostly members of the media – in the town of Ampatuan.
But it was short. Arroyo lifted it 7 days later on December 12, 2009 upon the recommendation of the Cabinet.
Duterte declared martial law Tuesday night after the Maute terrorist group seized the Islamic city of Marawi.
The Philippines military has been running a two-front anti-terror campaign in Mindanao – one against the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) based in Western Mindanao in the islands of Sulu and Basilan, and another against the Maute and its Abu Sayyaf allies in the Lanao provinces in Northern Mindanao.
]]>
Hager tells students a key investigative journalism ingredient is source protection. Image: Kendall Hutt/PMC[/caption]
Hager also said drawing information together “is one of the vital components of investigative journalism”.
“It’s trying to crack the facts.”
More importantly, Hager stressed, investigative journalism is about protecting sources.
‘Am I hiding my sources?’
“When I’m writing, I’m always asking myself: ‘Am I hiding my sources well enough?’ Half my brain is in source-protection mode.”
This was true of Hit & Run, Hager said.
“From the very first meetings, I had to make sure that there were no connections between us, so for when the inevitable witchhunt came, nobody would be able to find a connection. No metadata.
“There is no story which is worth ruining someone’s life for.”
Speaking with Asia Pacific Report after the talk, Hager said this was highly important in New Zealand, where a culture of persecuting whistleblowers exists.
“New Zealand is very unkind to whistleblowers. Apart from an occasional, very brave, determined person, hopefully near the end of their career who speaks up, I usually would never recommend someone to be a whistleblower in the sense of being open.
‘We’re going to skin them alive’
“I think it’s much safer for people to leak. We’re a small society where the ‘old boys’ network’ can punish people too much.”
Hager said this was disappointing, given New Zealand’s “long and honourable history” in which people from every sector of society quietly talk to journalists and politicians.
But the ‘old boys’ network’ will not be a deterrent, Hager affirmed.
“As long as we’ve got a country where people want information, there will be people leaking information, that’s guaranteed. We’ll keep going.”
However, he added the military’s actions after the release of Hit & Run prove it has every intention to “punish whistleblowers”.
“They’re having an inquiry right now and the inquiry’s called: ‘Which bastards spoke to them, and we’re going to skin them alive.”
Hager said Hit & Run was the “real story” behind New Zealand’s military role in Afghanistan, in which the SAS had been involved in a “misguided, disastrous raid”.
[caption id="attachment_20107" align="alignnone" width="680"]
Co-authors investigative journalist Nicky Hager (left) and war correspondent Jon Stephenson at the recent Hit & Run book launch in Wellington. Image: ODT[/caption]
‘Unscrupulously covered up’
“It struck me that if we could take one incident from a war, out of all the incidents, and write it really carefully and fully, then somebody who bothered to read that would actually – hopefully – get what a war is like: Real people, in a real situation, where people are fighting on sides and trying to kill each other. Who are these people?”
He also told Asia Pacific Report his thoughts on the military’s decision to hold no inquiry on the claims made in Hit & Run, the origins of which have been “unscrupulously covered up”.
“The military’s reaction to Hit & Run is nothing more than a continuation of a cover-up. This is what a cover-up looks like. They are dodging and weaving. Their arguments are weak, but there’s an underlying determination not to be scrutinised.
“In a normal government world, if someone had been accused of serious things, which they thought weren’t true, they’d want there to be an inquiry, they’d want someone to look at the facts and say, ‘those scurrilous authors were wrong and our reputations have been impugned’. But they don’t want that because we’re right. So what we’re seeing is them desperately trying to avoid being caught out.”
More importantly, the claims made in Hit & Run, Hager said, reveal a problem at the heart of the New Zealand military — secrecy.
“We’re seeing the inevitable results of an organisation which is too secretive. That believes it can keep all of its activities secret. This comes out in all sorts of dodgy, and petty, behaviour inside the Defence Force, because they’ve got used to never being properly scrutinised.
“We’re seeing a systemic problem in a secretive organisation which shouldn’t be so secret.”
On a more positive note, however, Hager closed his talk with a final piece of advice for the aspiring journalists in the room:
“We should be absolutely trustworthy.”
