The Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) has rejected the proposal to extend martial law in Maguindanao until the May 2010 elections.

PPCRV national chairperson Henrietta de Villa said they are opposed to the extension of martial law, saying the country already has “enough” experience during the Marcos dictatorship.

“We don’t want that to be repeated. It can’t stay longer until election time,” she said in an article posted on the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) website.

Instead of extending the period of martial law, De Villa said, the government should lift it and focus on the prosecution of the suspects in the November 23 massacre of 57 people in Ampatuan, Maguindanao.

The Catholic Church-backed poll watchdog is also planning to write a letter to Malacanang, Congress and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to express their concerns about martial law.

“We are going to submit a letter to inform them that if the implementation of martial law in Maguindanao went beyond 60 days, we would rather that the elections be postponed there,”Atty. Howard Calleja, PPCRV legal counsel, said in a press briefing in Manila, Wednesday.

“The conduct of the election won’t be as democratic if there’s martial law. So should election time come and there’s still martial law, we will opposed having elections there,” he added.

Earlier, Maj. Gen. Gaudencio Pangilinan, Armed Forces vice chief of staff for operations, proposed the extension Presidential Proclamation No. 1959 until next year’s presidential polls.