File Photo: Police officers check evacuees at a checkpoint outside Marawi City.<\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”]\n
MANILA\u2014 The Catholic prelate of war-torn Marawi is opposing the government\u2019s plan to extend the martial law in Mindanao.<\/p>\n
Bishop Edwin de la Pe\u00f1a of Marawi favored the 60-day military rule in the region but said that extending it is no longer necessary.<\/p>\n
After all, he said, the government can already deal with the situation in Marawi even without martial law.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am against martial law extension,\u201d de la Pe\u00f1a said. \u201cThe first martial law declaration was fine but if they are going to use Marawi again to justify its extension, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the military continue conducting airstrikes in areas where the remaining bandits are positioned, he said that it is apparent that the enemy\u2019s forces have weakened.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith all the resources at their command, the government can address the crisis now even without martial law extension,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The government previously assured to end the clashes last June 2 but it failed to meet its self-imposed the deadline.<\/p>\n
President Rodrigo Duterte instead wants to extend Martial Law in all of Mindanao until December 31 and Congress will convene a special session on Saturday, July 22, to tackle the matter.<\/p>\n
The prelate claimed that an army rule is already causing discomfort to many people and affected business operations in Mindanao particularly in Iligan City and nearby areas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey made Marawi as justification for martial law but the government could not finish the war in 60 days. That sends a bad signal,\u201d de la Pe\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n
Catholic bishops in Mindanao have earlier acknowledged the need for martial in the region but stressed that it must only be \u201ctemporary\u201d.<\/p>\n
As a collegial body, the Catholic Bishops\u2019 Conference of the Philippines has not yet issued a categorical stand on the issue and instead called for \u201cthe return of normalcy and peace\u201d in Marawi \u201cas soon as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wonder whether the continued state of martial law, much more its extension, will bring this about,\u201d the bishops said after their plenary assembly in Manila last week.\u00a0CBCPNews<\/strong><\/p>\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav admin_label=”Post Navigation” in_same_term=”off” hide_prev=”off” hide_next=”off” prev_text=”PREVIOUS ARTICLE” next_text=”NEXT ARTICLE” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cI am against martial law extension,\u201d de la Pe\u00f1a said. \u201cThe first martial law declaration was fine but if they are going to use Marawi again to justify its extension, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cbcp-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Ootw-yJ","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/aranzazushrine.ph\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/cbcp_marawi2.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2156,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2153\/revisions\/2156"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aranzazushrine.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}