MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – Malacañang provided a new justification for President Rodrigo Duterte to order a military takeover of the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

The rampant corruption in the bureau can be considered a form of “lawless violence,” thus allowing Duterte to call on the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), said Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Tuesday, October 30. (READ: Soldiers in Customs? But Constitution bars civilian assignments for military)

“The provision of the Constitution says that when there is lawless violence, then the President can call up the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Now, the lawless violence certainly would refer to what is happening in the Bureau of Customs,” Panelo said.

“There is a state of lawlessness there. If you can bring in hundreds of kilos of drugs, there must be some grave wrong in that area and there is [a] state of lawlessness there,” he continued.

Section 18 of the 1987 Constitution states: “The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion.” (READ: Lawmakers hit military ‘takeover’ of BOC: ‘Martial law na ba?’)

Corruption as lawless violence? Panelo appeared to use “lawlessness” and “lawless violence” interchangeably. But does corruption in an agency translate to the “lawless violence” being referred to in the Constitution?

Panelo said “violence” does not only pertain to “physical” violence.

“It’s not just physical violence. You do violence to the Constitution, you do violence to the law. That’s a state of lawlessness,” he said.

Law professor Tony La Viña, however, said corruption by itself, with no physical acts of violence, cannot be counted as “lawless violence.”

Asked by Rappler to define lawless violence, he said: “Killing, shooting, physical incidents. By no stretch of the imagination would corruption be lawless violence.”

Panelo, asked on Tuesday to differentiate between a “state of lawlessness” and “lawless violence,” said, “state of lawlessness would include state of lawless violence.”

But the Constitution does not include a “state of lawlessness” as among the grounds allowing the President to call on the military.

Panelo’s contradictions. Panelo was also full of contradictions when it came to explaining how the AFP takeover will be operationalized.

At the start of the press conference, he said members of the AFP will not be appointed or designated to any BOC position, in order to comply with the Constitution’s prohibition against active military personnel being given civilian posts.

“The President is not appointing or designating any particular member of the Armed Forces,” said Panelo.

The military will only be in BOC premises to “make their presence felt” and to “hopefully intimidate those corrupt people there,” said Duterte’s spokesman.

But just the day before, Panelo had used the term “designation” to refer to what will happen to military personnel.

“The designation of the personnel from the AFP will be temporary,” he had said on Monday, October 29.

The use of this term is important as the Constitution specifically bars any active-duty military personnel from being “appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the Government.”

A few hours later, on Monday night, Panelo used the term “oversee” to describe what the military will do in relation to the BOC.

Holding Duterte ‘hostage.’ The assertion that Duterte must abide by that constitutional prohibition is tantamount to holding the President “hostage,” insisted Panelo.

He said Duterte must uphold another constitutional provision, that the government must “serve and protect the people.”

“You cannot make this President hostage to a particular provision without relating to previous provisions that grant him the authority, as well as the obligation and the duty, to serve and protect this nation,” said Panelo.

As to the fate of current Customs personnel, Panelo said Malacañang expects a “memorandum order” from the “designate Bureau of Customs commissioner.” He did not name this official.

He was also unable to clarify if the BOC personnel are on floating status, as announced by Duterte, or fired, as he also implied when he said the personnel are “out.”

Malacañang has yet to issue a written order on the military takeover. – Rappler.com