AFP reviews lifting of state of emergency in Maguindanao

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) is studying the possibility of lifting the state of emergency in Maguindanao and neighboring areas, eight months after the gruesome Ampatuan massacre in November 2009. AFP spokesman Brig. Gen. Jose Mabanta said AFP chief Lt. Gen. Ricardo David would decide on the matter after hearing from military commanders in the Eastern Mindanao Region. "We are still assessing the situation and waiting the reports from our commanders on the ground... We are looking into the possibility of lifting it or extending it," Mabanta, who is currently in Mindanao, told GMANews.TV over the phone. Mabanta said if ever the state of emergency would be lifted, the recommendation should come from Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin and not only from David. Maguindanao was placed under state of emergency a day after the November 23 massacre of 57 people, a grisly political violence blamed on the powerful Ampatuan clan. Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City were also included in the declaration to prevent a possible spillover of the violence. If he were to be asked, Mabanta said it seemed that "everything is normal. Everything has always been normal here." A radio report on Friday quoted Eastern Mindanao Command head Lt. Gen. Raymundo Ferrer, reporting from Davao City, as telling the AFP chief that the situation in the region has "gone back to normal." However, Mabanta told GMANews.TV that President Benigno Simeon "Noynoy" Aquino III still has the last say on whether or not to lift the state of emergency in those areas. "I feel it's not yet the [right] time to talk about because it will be the President who will ultimately decide," he said. Mabanta also said that while the three areas were placed under a state of emergency due to the Ampatuan massacre, he thinks that communist insurgency in the region remains to be its "main problem." Maguindanao was also placed under Martial Law in December 4 but it was lifted a week later. Ferrer took over as the military governor of Maguindanao while the province was under military rule. Ranking officials of the local government and police, some of them from the Ampatuan clan whose members are suspects in the massacre, were all suspended. –VVP, GMANews.TV