President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s press secretary denied on early Saturday morning an ABS-CBN report that Maguindanao has been placed under martial law.

Speaking to rival GMA Network, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the report was not true.

As of posting time, ABS-CBN has not taken down its report. Either it was a bum steer or Remonde was not telling GMA News the whole truth.

After 14 years of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos, many Filipinos are usually very wary of any move to impose it on the whole country. 

Martial law in 1972 enabled Marcos to stay in as president beyond the constitutional limits on his term of office at the time.

Marcos was booted out of the presidency via the first People Power uprising of 1986 by Filipinos enraged by human rights abuses and the raiding of the national treasury.