Adiong explains why it's a bad idea to declare martial law after MSU blast

Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong (Facebook)

Declaring martial law in the aftermath of the deadly bombing at the Mindanao State University (MSU) would be ill-advised, House Assistant Minority Leader Lanao del Sur 1st district Rep. Zia Alonto Adiong said. 

"No, no we should not. Okay, I think we should not resort to that," Adiong said in a chance interview Monday, Dec. 4, when asked if military rule was a viable move following the campus attack. 

"We do not want to cause unnecessary panic. The more kasi na mag-panic tayo it’s also a sign na hindi tayo in control of everything (Panicking is a sign that we're not in control of everything). So it should be the opposite," he noted. 

On Sunday morning, Dec. 3, a bomb went off at MSU main campus in Marawi City. At least four people died and dozens were left wounded. 

Even more appalling was the fact that the blast occurred in the middle of Catholic mass service at the university. 

According to Adiong, it's absolutely vital for the authorities to win the public's support and sympathy moving forward from the tragedy. Declaring martial law again won't achieve this, he said. 

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"By [impressing] on the community na (that) everything is not in order, na hindi natin kaya (that we can't handle the situation), so that we declare again...martial law, that in a way is a message to the community na hindi natin kaya ito so kailangan natin mag-extra effort (that we really can't handle it so we need the extra effort), which may cause unnecessary panic." 

He said, "What we need to do is based on the experience we accomplished after the Marawi seige, we need to win the people’s support, we need to win sympathies." 

"By doing so, we do not only resort to military effort, we also need to invest more on the civilian defense scheme, or civilian defense intervention," noted Adiong. 

"One is to communicate the message, win the support of the public, because the only way for us to secure our streets, is to make the civilians our partner in policing their community," he underscored.