The Lessons of Martial Rule

BY JEJOMAR C. BINAY
President, United Opposition (UNO)

THERE are those who will question the accuracy of drawing parallels between the years of martial law and our present predicament.

They may argue that the conditions during martial law and the conditions today are very much different. I disagree. Of course there are some differences, the most obvious is that the chief protagonist and the one inflicting severe damage to our economy, our political system, and our democracy is a woman. But the disturbing similarities are plenty:

The dictator ruled this nation on a spurious mandate, earned through election fraud and the subversion of the Constitution.

The Arroyo administration first rose to power by undermining the Constitution and subverting the popular will as expressed in the 1998 presidential election. It is clinging to power as a result of systematic election fraud, aided by the invisible Comelec commissioner.

In justifying martial law, the dictator promised a better future for the people, an end to the rule of the oligarchs, and a new republic. These were all empty promises.

In unseating a president elected with the highest mandate in Philippine history, the sole beneficiary of the unconstitutional misadventure of 2001 promised moral governance, an end to poverty, a better life for ordinary Filipinos, and a strong republic. These were all empty promises.

During the years of martial law, juicy government positions, contracts, and kickbacks went to a favored few, and the trail of corruption went all the way to Malacañang.

Under Mrs. Arroyo – same as the above.

During the years of martial law, the regime surrendered our patrimony and our sovereignty to foreign interests. Philippine policy was defined by what was in the best interest of foreign creditors and patron government.

Under Mrs. Arroyo – same as the above.

With the impeachment case murdered at the House of Representatives – I say murdered because there is the element of premeditation – Mrs. Arroyo has grown more arrogant, her arrogance encouraged by her sycophants in Congress and Malacañang.

It is apparent that Mrs. Arroyo believes that she has weathered the worst. Tapos na ang boksing, tuloy ang ligaya ni Gloria. Now, it’s payback time for her critics. As she herself said, "It’s time to bring in the terror."

The Arroyo regime is playing it rough. In rapid succession, the regime moved to curtail the Constitutional right to free speech and assembly with the Calibrated Preemptive Response policy (Ironically, Batas Pambansa 880, crafted during the martial law regime, is more liberal in treating rallies in contrast to the unconstitutional and unlawful CPR.) After threatening to impose the "rule of law" on critics who persist in "destabilization," a dormant warrant of arrest is brought back to life and ordered served by the Justice Secretary on Bro. Eddie Villanueva, a leading opposition figure. The threat of administrative sanctions, including suspension from office, continues to dangle over the heads of uncooperative local officials.

Last week, Representative Noynoy Aquino decried the use of the Hacienda Luisita issue as a political football, after the Department of Agrarian reform invalidated the estate’s stock option with its tenants.

The Senate, seen as the last bastion of democracy, is currently under attack, with the Executive risking a Constitutional crisis so it can spring from the chamber’s custody a shifty Palace official. A fairy tale of an assassination plot against the president is given credibility by the Justice Secretary, who probably sees the revelation – in the Bible, revelations come from heavenly voices – as proof of his theory of a grand conspiracy against the president. And just this week, Mrs. Arroyo’s House allies passed at committee level an anti-terror bill that will most likely brand anyone opposing Mrs. Arroyo as a terrorist.

What we have existing is a de facto state of martial rule. What is missing is the formal declaration. And if the word on the street is to be believed, that’s already in the works.

George Santayana said that those who do not learn the lessons of the past are doomed to repeat them.

It is timely that we remember this injunction against collective amnesia. The unraveling events bring back chilling memories of martial rule, and unless we recognize this early that the Arroyo regime is using the same playbook, we will again be condemned to live through those time, as if e didn’t know any better.

But there is another lesson from martial rule that Mrs. Arroyo and her rasputins should remember: the people will resist and in the end, the dictator flees the country in disgrace.