Updated: About eight hours after this podcast was posted, or at noontime today, the DFA issued the following statement:
“The DFA reassures the public that repatriation efforts are on-going in Libya under Crisis Alert Level 4 (Mandatory Repatriation). At no point in time was it discontinued… Repatriation efforts are headed by Adelio Angelito Cruz, Chargé d’Affaires of the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli and leader of the Rapid Response Team. The DFA remains committed to the protection of our nationals in Libya as evidenced by the continued presence of core Embassy personnel despite the highly volatile security situation in that country … We reiterate our call to our remaining nationals in Libya to immediately get in touch with the Philippine Embassy in Tripoli and register for repatriation. The Philippine Government will shoulder the repatriation costs,” (inquirer.net)
inquirer.net further posted that: “To register for repatriation, Filipinos may contact the Embassy in Tripoli through the telephone numbers (00218) 918-244-208 / 914-370-399 / 945-348-481 and the e-mail addresses tripoli.pe@gmail.com and tripoli.pe@dfa.gov.ph.
“The Embassy’s address is KM 7 Gargaresh Road, Abu Nawas, P.O. Box 12508, Tripoli.
“Families and relatives of Filipinos in Libya may also call DFA’s 24-hour hotlines (02) 552-7105 / (02) 834-4685 to register their relatives in Libya for repatriation. They may also call these numbers for any questions and concerns, or send their queries by e-mail to oumwa@dfa.gov.ph. “
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(first posted at about 4:00 a.m. — very early in the morning): According to news reports, armed men on Wednesday seized a Filipino nurse in the Libyan capital, held her for several hours and raped her, medics and security officials said.
She was walking on her way home from work, according to reports.
Depending on the facts and evidence upon an investigation, the following may be pertinent:
Article 4 of Additional Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions;
Article 27 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War;
Article 8 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court … a discussion follows in the podcast below (which plays automatically) (image rightclicked from the United Nations website used here non-commercially for academic purposes)
The President has been actively exercising his commander-in-chief powers by directly supervising the operations to end the Zamboanga standoff.
Last week, we had a post here on the commander-in-chief powers of the President: In particular: 1)the so-called “calling-out” power or the power to call out the armed forces to quell any rebellion, invasion, lawless violence.
This means that the President alone has the power to order, command, deploy, and direct the armed forces in order to suppress lawless violence, rebellion, invasion. But of course he can delegate the operational details to the defense secretary or the chief of staff.
But based on this president’s life history, maybe he has experience in security matters and would probably like to see through the Zamboanga crisis first-hand with minimal damage to civilian life and property.
(The other commander-in-chief powers have been discussed here last week: the power to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus subject to constitutional limits and the power to declare martial law subject to the same limits. )
What about the so-called “emergency powers”? What are those?
Only Congress can grant the President extraordinary powers under a state of emergency which Congress declares: In particular:
1.In times of war or a national emergency, Congress by resolution may grant the President emergency powers, such as the take-over of public utilities.
If the President on his own declares a state of emergency, that presidential declaration does not confer any extraordinary powers on him.
2.The second so-called emergency power (actually, it’s the first in the emergency powers clause Constitution) is dire. You don’t want it. They are war powers. As follows: Only Congress can declare a state of war by a vote of two-thirds of both Houses in joint session voting separately (that is: 2/3 vote of the lower House and 2/3 vote of the Senate). Only after such declaration of a state of war can the President exercise “war powers”.
Our generation has never seen a congressional declaration of war and God forbid that we do. Examples of war powers are: punishing, based on a compulsory conscription law, those who refuse to heed the draft to the armed forces; directing the use of communication facilities and other utilities for national defense; directing and controlling the transport of basic commodities like rice and food stuff; controlling news media content for defense purposes; etc.
We’re good with basic commander-in-chief calling-out powers. The mopping up operations is on-going.
The plight of more than a hundred thousand displaced civilians need to be addressed urgently, though.
