Thirty days of martial law in Marawi City and the rest of Mindanao have aggravated the situation in Marawi City to inordinately horrific and miserable proportions.

The mounting deaths and destruction in Marawi City are the aftermath of the declaration of martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus.

Thirty days ago on 23 May 2017, these were not the relevant and substantial facts when Proclamation No. 216 was issued.

All of this horror and misery after the declaration of martial law could have been avoided if the President did not precipitately and unwarrantedly declare martial law and the suspend the writ which gave the armed forces and police authorities the unnecessary impetus to implement military rule with disastrous consequences.

The extent and gravity of the deaths, damage to properties and displacement of civilians were the results of the excessive military offensive through airstrikes and land assaults.

It should be recalled that no less than the military establishment and the President’s Report to the Congress admitted that what precipitated the armed confrontation was the military’s initiative to arrest or capture Hapilon and the Maute brothers, which operational offensive was resisted by the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Groups in an act of pintakasi to shield and protect their leaders, not to seize Marawi City.

Martial law has spawned unprecedented abuses of human rights and civil liberties as documented in a verified statement of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines-Lanao del Sur Chapter dated 09 June 2017.

The declaration of martial law has made the government a purveyor of terrorist propaganda when military and defense officials repeatedly allege that the establishment of a wilayah in Marawi City is the objective of the Maute and Abu Sayyaf Groups as claimed by the terrorist groups.

This propaganda is mainly conjectural and baseless since no less than the ISIS has not reliably acknowledged nor confirmed this projected purpose.

The Philippines is not among the 10 countries that belong to the ISIS-decreed caliphates which are Kenya, Somalia, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN