Documents of 2006 State of National Emergency in the Philippines

I just heard lawyer Alan Paguia telling Eli Saludar of AM Radio 588 in Manila that he is encouraging all law students, law professors, educators and even the general public to carefully READ the official documents pertaining to the 24 February 2006 Proclamation of a State of a National Emergency by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. He thinks there is something suspicious, inconsistent, or even downright sinister going on. I'm wondering myself because of all the shenanigans that have gone on between Malacanang and the Supreme Court in the non-handling of things like Executive Order No. 464, which the Senate unanimously questioned months and months ago with no action taken -- tacit approval by the High Court of the gag order on members of the Executive Department.

So I am gathering in one place the most important government documents and sources relating to this matter, including the Tagalog Version of the Palace Propaganda Video on the state of national emergency. (See #4 below, where there is some possible online graft and corruption going on, right on the Palace website!)

(1) Here is Proclamation 1017 itself from the Palace web site:

MALACANANG PALACE

MANILA

PROCLAMATION NO. 1017

WHEREAS, over these past months, elements in the political opposition have conspired with authoritarians of the extreme Left represented by the NDF-CPP-NPA and the extreme Right, represented by military adventurists – the historical enemies of the democratic Philippine State -- who are now in a tactical alliance and engaged in a concerted and systematic conspiracy, over a broad front, to bring down the duly-constituted Government elected in May 2004;

WHEREAS, these conspirators have repeatedly tried to bring down the President;

WHEREAS, the claims of these elements have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media;

WHEREAS, this series of actions is hurting the Philippine State – by obstructing governance including hindering the growth of the economy and sabotaging the people’s confidence in government and their faith in the future of this country;

WHEREAS, these actions are adversely affecting the economy;

WHEREAS, these activities give totalitarian forces of both the extreme Left and extreme Right the opening to intensify their avowed aims to bring down the democratic Philippine State;

WHEREAS, Article 2, Section 4 of our Constitution makes the defense and preservation of the democratic institutions and the State the primary duty of Government;

WHEREAS, the activities above-described, their consequences, ramifications and collateral effects constitute a clear and present danger to the safety and the integrity of the Philippine State and of the Filipino people;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, President of the Republic of the Philippines and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested upon me by Section 18, Article 7 of the Philippine Constitution which states that: "The President…whenever it becomes necessary,… may call out (the) armed forces to prevent or suppress … rebellion…," and in my capacity as their Commander-in-Chief, do hereby command the Armed Forces of the Philippines, to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent or suppress all forms of lawless violence as well as any act of insurrection or rebellion and to enforce obedience to all the laws and to all decrees, orders and regulations promulgated by me personally or upon my direction; and as provided in Section 17, Article 12 of the Constitution do hereby declare a State of National Emergency.

IN WITNESS HEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the Republic of the Philippines to be affixed.

Done in the City of Manila, this 24^th day of February, in the year of Our Lord, two thousand and six.

SIGNED:

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
President
Republic of the Philippines

(2) Next is General Order No. 5 from the Palace website--

MALACAÑANG PALACE

MANILA

GENERAL ORDER NO. 5

DIRECTING THE ARMED FORCES OF THE PHILIPPINES IN THE FACE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY, TO MAINTAIN PUBLIC PEACE, ORDER AND SAFETY AND TO PREVENT AND SUPPRESS LAWLESS VIOLENCE

WHEREAS; over these past months, elements in the political opposition have conspired with authoritarian of the extreme left represented by the NDF-CPP-NPA and the extreme Right, represented by military adventurists – the historical enemies of the democratic Philippine State – who are now in a tactical alliance and engaged in a concerted and systematic conspiracy, ver a broad front, to bring down the duly-constituted Government elected in May 2004;

WHEREAS; these conspirators have repeatedly tried to bring down our republican government;

WHEREAS; the claims of these elements have been recklessly magnified by certain segments of the national media;

WHEREAS; this series of actions is hurting the Philippine State by obstructing governance, including hindering the growth of the economy and sabotaging the people’s confidence in government and their faith in the future of this country;

WHEREAS; these actions are adversely affecting the economy;

WHEREAS; these activities give totalitarian forces of the both extreme Left and extreme Right the opening to intensify their avowed aims to bring down the democratic Philippine State;

WHEREAS; Article 2, Section 4 of our Constitution makes the defense and preservation of the democratic institutions and the State the primary duty of Government;

WHEREAS; the activities above described, their consequences, ramifications and collateral effects constitute a clear and present danger to the safety and integrity of the Philippine State and of the Filipino people;

WHEREAS; Proclamation 1017 dated February 24, 2006 has been issued declaring a State of National Emergency;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO, by virtue of the powers vested in me under the Constitution as President of the Republic of the Philippines, and Commander-in-Chief of the Republic of the Philippines, and pursuant to Proclamation No.1017 dated February 24, 2006, do hereby call upon the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP), to prevent and suppress acts of terrorism and lawless violence in the country;

I hereby direct the Chief of Staff of the AFP and the Chief of the PNP, as well as the officers and men of the AFP and PNP, to immediately carry out the necessary and appropriate actions and measures to suppress and prevent acts of terrorism and lawless violence.

City of Manila, February 24, 2006.

(Sgd.) GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

By the President:

(Sgd.) EDUARDO R. ERMITA
Executive Secretary

(3) Then there is Proclamation 1021 the order allegedly lifting 1017 but may not formally or effectively do so as Atty. Paguia suggests --

MALACAÑANG

Manila

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE PHILIPPINES

PROCLAMATION NO. 1021

DECLARING THAT THE STATE OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY HAS CEASED TO EXIST

WHEREAS, pursuant to Section 18, Article Vll and Section 17, Article Xll of the Constitution, Proclamation No. 1017 dated February 24, 2006 was issued declaring a state of national emergency;

WHEREAS, by virtue of General Order No. 5 and No. 6 dated February 24, 2006, which were issued on the basis of Proclamation No. 1017, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) were directed to maintain law and order throughout the Philippines, prevent and suppress all forms of lawless violence as well as any act of rebellion and to undertake such actions as may be necessary;

WHEREAS, the AFP and PNP have effectively prevented, suppressed and quelled the acts lawless violence and rebellion;

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GLORIA MACAPAGAL –ARROYO, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by law, hereby declare that the state of national emergency has ceased to exist.

City of Manila, MAR 03 2006

(Sgd) GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO

By the President:

(Sgd) EDUARDO R. ERMITA
Executive Secretary

(4) There are two links at the Palace Website to a 12.5 minute video presentation of the circumstances that the Palace alleges led up to the declaration of a state of national emergency.

Paglaban Sa Kataksilan ("Fighting Treachery" WMV format in Pilipino national language hosted on the official government website.)

Presumably the Same Thing (hosted at an alternative site called Macapagal Dot Com)
I wonder who OWNS the above second website that is hosting the Government's propaganda film? Maybe it is the President's younger brother, Buboy Macapagal, or any number of private entities allied with the Palace.. This seems to be tainted with a lil bit of online graft and corruption going on here since the second website, if not an official government website is getting some free publicity at government expense. If that site gets used for more "private" propaganda later, let this be a record that on this day, hard evidence of online graft and corruption exists against the Office of the Press Secretary, or whoever runs www.gov.ph, and will be in the Google and Yahoo cache servers before they can take it down. I could be wrong about this, of course, and in fact I hope I am. But things are developing at a rapid pace and there's no harm done recording these facts at the risk of one blogger's speculation being wrong.

PLEASE ANALYZE THE ABOVE DOCUMETS: I ask the lawyers and legal minds on the Comment Thread to consider above documents from the strictly technical viewpoint, and not just accept what they are said to contain or proclaim. The suggestion has already been made that since General Order No. 5 has not been explicitly revoked, it is still part of the Philippine Military's current orders from its Commander-in-chief and perhaps constitutes the much-forewarned about "undeclared martial law."

DEAN FROILAN BACUNGAN was speaking today with Linda Andanar Yiu of ABSCBN New about the position of the Philippine Constitutional Association (Philconsa) on the controversial State of Emergency Proclamation 1017. This highly respected former Dean of the University of Philippines Law School and currently a Philconsa Governor, had some really choice words of institutional and personal condemnation for the acts that followed immediately upon the proclamation last Friday. Dean Bacungan said that the actions of the Palace in raiding without warrant the offices of the Daily Tribune newspaper was definitely violative of the Constitutional guarantees against any law being passed abridging the rights to free speech and press freedom. Let's listen in on Dean Bacungan and his savaging of the savages that have taken over this sad Archipelago... (click on the mp3 icon to listen).


And on the evening of 24 February 2006 itself ABSCBN News program Dong Puno Live had a comprehensive discussion of Proclamation 1017, featuring lawyer Marichu Lambino, Dean Raul Pangalangan (UP Law School, Harvard University) and Dean Amado Valdez (Feati University Law School.) I recorded the audio and make it available here with my apologies and/or gratitude to ABSCBN News, but the questioning by host Dong Puno was brilliant and the responses equally illuminating on a crucial issue tainted with plenty of public interest -- Proclamation 1017 and the present State of Emergency.


Proclamation 1017 (Part 1)


Proclamation 1017 (Part 2)