#Du30 needs to effect lawful arrests asap—this is Davao, he was a city prosecutor, it’s right up his alley
Some essential details first:
The President does not declare lawlessness.
He does not declare a state of lawlessness.
He does not declare a state of lawless violence.
This kind of sentence structure means he is imposing lawlessness, or that he is imposing a state of lawless violence, or that he is putting the entire country in state of lawless violence.
Rather, the President declares the existence of a state of lawless violence for which he exercises his Commander-in-Chief power of calling out the armed forces to suppress such lawless violence.
In essence, what he is declaring is his exercise of the Commander-in-Chief power of calling out the armed forces to suppress lawless violence.
To call out the armed forces is to command the armed forces, to order the armed forces, to deploy the armed forces. Etc. Only the Commander-in-Chief is authorized to do these (although he can delegate the operational details to his chief-of-staff.)
In other words, he is declaring that he is ordering the armed forces to suppress lawless violence by, for example, intensifying the hot pursuit of the Abu Sayyaf, the setting up of lockdowns and checkpoints in certain areas, etc.
Simply put: The President ordered increased military patrols and presence in the cities and crowded areas, etc.
Legally, it is not necessary for the Commander-in-Chief to expressly declare: “I am declaring the existence of a state of lawless violence…etc.”. He can simply deploy and order members of the armed forces to execute their mission.
But since he had in mind a whole set of measures such as lockdowns, checkpoints, etc. , he needed to declare the constitutional framework for what he was doing. That framework is the Commander-in-Chief calling out power.
In other words, he was putting military boots on city streets and tiled floors so he needed to declare his constitutional framework.
Amid all these huffing and puffing, what is the status of the investigation?
The President needs to order the speedy and careful conduct of the investigation so that criminal complaints of murder with ignominy, 14 counts, could be filed right away –- this is Davao and he was the top city prosecutor so he knows what to do. The suspects will not reply in the preliminary investigation so the reglementary periods could be fast-tracked – so that warrants of arrest could be issued right away. But if warrantless arrests would be made, the “suspects” can only be detained without charges for 36 hours only – make it count. THIS IS URGENT.
(This artwork of the Philippine eagle is from an original by Jeffrey Duhaylungsod and Donnie Ray Lopez, both Davaoeños, published by and rightclicked from davaocitybattad.blogspot; i just put the graphics #DavaoStrong with apologies, used here non-commercially for academic purposes)
“Commander-in-chief powers & emergency powers: Zamboanga standoff “The President (PNoy, on Sept. 20, 2013) 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 (PNoy, re-posted from Sept. 20, 2013), 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: (compulsory military draft) — penalizing, 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.” (Re-posted from Sept. 20, 2013)
