Under De Facto Martial Law
Public servants must always be guided by their mandate — “public service is a public trust.” By maintaining a system that is lenient on corruption and oppression, the government would continue to serve their interests at the expense of the Filipino people’s welfare.
Forty-eight (48) years since the late dictator’s last reign and yet until now, the vestiges and horrors that he brought still terrorize the country and the people. The difference, however, is now we’re facing a different president but with the same dictatorial tactics.
On 21 September 1972, Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation №1081 — formally declaring that the Philippines is under Martial Law. His justification for this uncalled military ruling was the series of bombings in Metro Manila, including the Plaza Miranda bombing in 1971. As early as 17 May 1969, he has already insinuated the declaration of Martial Law in his speech with the Philippine Military Academy.
“One of my favorite mental exercises, which others may find useful, is to foresee possible problems one may have to face in the future and to determine what solutions can possibly be made to meet these problems.
For instance, if I were suddenly asked, to pose a given situation, to decide in five minutes when and where to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, I have decided that there should be at least five questions that I would ask, and depending on the answers to these five questions, I would know when and where to suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.
The same thing is true with the declaration of martial law […] It is a useful mental exercise to meet a problem before it happens.”
On 17 January 1981, Marcos formally ended Martial law with Proclamation №2045. However, it was not until 1986 that democracy was restored, making the country under 14 years of autocratic rule. In the same year, the Marcoses were forcibly deported from the country through the revolt of the people — the People Power Revolution.
In estimation, the Marcoses have plundered the country’s coffers at the amount of $5 billion to $10 billion. The Presidential Commission of Good Government, however, is still recovering the illegally amassed wealth of the Marcoses for over 30 years now. Besides this, abuse of human rights was also rampant, wherein according to Amnesty International, about 70,000 people were detained, 34,000 were tortured, and 3,240 were killed.
Today, beneath the shadows of our so-called democracy, and the absence of a formally declared military rule, the Duterte administration is no different from Marcos’ administration with the rampancy of extra-judicial killings, media being threatened, and the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Bill. It is no surprise that with the rampancy of human rights abuses and Duterte’s uncontrollable need for unlimited power, we are under de facto martial law.
While there is an ongoing pandemic consternating the whole world, President Rodrigo Duterte managed to pass the Republic Act №11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Bill into law on 3 July 2020. Despite the uproars of the people to end the militaristic policies, the government keeps on veering the public away with different diversionary tactics from their trivial plans in ending the pandemic, and towards their contentious and unconstitutional laws and policies.
The controversial law was passed to prevent, prohibit, and penalized terrorism in the country. It states vague premises on the definitions of terrorism, which could easily be abused, especially that red-tagging has always been the government’s tactics in identifying dissidents.
For over four years of presidency, the passing of the Anti-Terrorism Bill is only one of the many domineering attacks of our human rights. Recently, Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa faced another tax case once again, and the media giant ABS-CBN’s operation was deceased. Many students who were also expressing dissent during the GCQ in all parts of the country were arrested and detained under unknown legal grounds.
Marcos and Duterte share similar characteristics. Both have a quenchless desire to have power and create an autocratic rule by destroying every essence of democracy.
Now more than ever is the high time that the public shall mobilize and fill the streets with anger and dissent against the continuous abuse of democracy and overturn of human rights.
While more and more people continue to experience hunger and poverty, we must not find solace in our homes and neglect the outright violations of the government to its people. While the number of people getting arrested under no legal grounds using mere suspicions of disreputable informants increases, we must not abandon the reality that the government has created a bloody war against its people by disregarding our human rights.
Justice will prevail for the unrest. It was once done in 1986. It can be done again.
