A DAY OF RECKONING!
By
Rolly de los Santos
September 21 will always mark a very
important event in our lives - or so I thought. I am beginning to feel that I
have been disillusioned by the promise of the events in February of 1986 when
we were able to topple down the strongman that was Ferdinand E. Marcos. I witnessed the jubilations in the streets and
the world sharing our happiness as we worked hard to gain our freedom. We saw how no less than Jane Fonda brandish
the L sign on American TV during the coronation night of the Oscar’s or that
famous group of Peter, Paul and Mary coming over to the country and give out a
free concert at EDSA as a dedication to the Filipino people for a fight that
was well fought.
During the early 70’s, then
President Marcos had a very big problem. His term as President was about to end
because the 1935 Constitution only allows the President to be re-elected once. Marcos was at the end of his rope, so to
speak. But he craved for power. Who
would not? Not only was he the most powerful man enjoying all the perks of a
booming economy, he probably thinks he had not yet amassed all the wealth he
could muster.
Not only am I one of the only few in
school who has experienced Martial Law in its entirety, I am also one of those
who have experienced it being hatched and conceptualized. I was a high school student when the First
Quarter storm erupted in the streets.
Student leaders were being killed during demonstrations along Mendiola
and Quiapo. The University of the
Philippines was practically a war zone. On the lighter side, the President was
rumored to have a paramour in the person of an American actress named Dovie
Beams. However, the news was getting worse. Ninoy and most of the Senators
exposed that they were being bribed to enact a law favoring the extension of
Marcos’ mandate. The Liberal Party rally at Plaza Miranda was
bombed killing bystanders and injuring most of the candidates and many more. There was an attempt on the life of then
Secretary of the National Defense, Juan Ponce Enrile.
And then by the stroke of a pen,
Martial Law was declared. Everybody was
ecstatic. Finally, order was coming. This
was the general sentiment as a result of the promise of a new order, the Bagong
Lipunan and its battle cry of “Sa ikauunlad ng bayan, disiplina ang
kailangan.” (For National development,
there should be discipline). The whole machinery was put into place. A new
political party, the KBL, was installed with a new anthem in a song composed by
Levi Celerio that bears the title, “Bagong Lipunan”. Television shows would be a platform for
propaganda and very popular shows or events like a Muhammad Ali fight, (a
similar occurrence when Pacquiao slugs it out in the ring and everybody was glued
to the TV) would be interrupted regularly by the president’s address to the
nation, etc. However, as Lord Achton
once said, “Absolute power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely.” As history
would show us, those who became very powerful became despots and dictators like
Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Duvalier, and Muammar Gaddafi. And our Marcos was no
exception.
After several years, the atrocities of the new order were being revealed. Marcos, in order to gain the Generals to his
side, offered them wealth and fortune. Marcos’ Rolex 12 alluding to several of
his advisers have been given Rolex watches to gain their support and allow him
to have full authoritarian control of the country. He created his own Gestapo,
the Metrocom, a spin-off from the military’s Philippine Constabulary and took
over the jurisdiction of the police force, who are supposedly the ones to take
care of law and order among the civilians.
Slowly, the military was politicized giving them the idea that they can
have power and stage several coup d’etats during Cory’s presidency. Extra judicial killings were happening here
and there giving another meaning to the word “salvage”. I can go on and on with
a litany of abuses and atrocities committed during this period in our life as a
nation but that would only eat up too much space and time. One of the best readings would have to be
“The Conjugal Dictatorship” an opus by Primitivo Henares, who just vanished in
thin air and has never been found ever since.
Why do I say that I am disheartened
by recent events? It seems like we as a people have forgotten everything. We
seem to have a very short memory. The
facebook generation seems to be slowly being brainwashed by disinformation and
the young generation seem to be biting hook, line and sinker. How many times have I seen these young ones
being able to read a very short article on facebook and swear that this is valid research.
First a disclaimer. I am not a “Yellowtard”. I have always been
apolitical and never supported any candidate openly. My vote is mine and mine
alone and I respect everyone’s choice whether or not it is the same as mine.
On September 14, we were given a
talk on Martial Law by no other than Atty. Diokno, the son of the illustrious,
one of the most respected senators we ever had, Sen. Jose Diokno. He advocated that accepting the spate of
killings that is happening now is not only peculiar but has already been done
before. Whereas during Marcos’ time, the
culprit was communism, today, the battle cry is against drugs. And many would say that this is alright for
after all only those who are guilty are being killed. That only the low life
addicts and pushers are being slain so that we, the clean hearted, well-meaning
citizens can live in peace. But really?
How would we know that only the guilty are being massacred? That what is
happening now is some sort of a soul cleansing, if we are to equate that we as
a people have a collective soul? We will never know for the victims are now
dead and the police are using the principle of a dead man tells no tale. How I
wish I can join the band wagon and admire Duterte just like the others, but I just
can’t at this time.
My only curse probably is that I
know what the law is and the principles from where they are based - in a
democratic country, at least, and that I still believe the logic. It is the duty of every Filipino citizen to
know what are his/her rights. These are provided in the 1987 Constitution in
Art III, entitled Bill of Rights. This
article embodies our basic, inalienable rights for our protection. Paramount among these rights are: the principle
that everyone has a basic right that the State cannot take away such as the
freedom of expression, choice, religious beliefs, etc… “presumption of
innocence until proven guilty,” as provided for in sec. 14 #s 1 and 2. This is rooted on the principle that the
state would rather let the guilty go scot free than have an innocent man suffer
for something (s)he did not do. This is
very important for a person should stand trial and be proven guilty beyond
reasonable doubt just so we know that the person whom we are crucifying is
truly guilty. There is nothing more sinister than having someone suffer for a
crime (s)he did not commit. What if
(s)he has just been framed, with evidence planted on his/her person or a victim
of lousy investigation? The spate of killings happening now has thrown this
principle out and we will never know who are truly guilty. My strongest fear against the absence of
judicial process is that I have two sons. What if they encounter a rogue
policeman and plant evidence on their person? They can easily be killed with
the blessings of this government. What
if they come home after a well spent drinking spree with their friends and
somehow irritates someone and reports them to the police as being a drug
peddler?
What about the right of the people
against unreasonable searches and seizures (sec. 2) and the sanctity of ones
abode? These rights must have gone down the drain for the present state seem to
deprive us of the right against a
warrantless arrest. As a matter of fact,
it is possible that of the more than 1,000 death that occurred from day 1,
there could have been instances where an arrest per se, whether valid or not,
has been made at all. All the police
shall do is claim that the alleged offender fought it out with them and they
even receive praises for their act.
When Marcos was preparing the
people with his plans of declaring martial law, one of the first steps that he
did was to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. This means that the police force
has no obligation to produce the body of an arrested person. Hence, they are free to instill torture of
physical and/or emotional pain without being checked, a violation of Sec. 19 of
the Bill of Rights. Fast forward to a
few weeks earlier, we see one of the Senators, Dick Gordon, suggesting the
suspension of the writ of habeas corpus as an added response to the emergency
powers accorded to the President with regard to the recent bombing in Davao.
I am not against the
President. As a matter of fact, I pray
that he will succeed as the leader of this battered land. Somehow, I believe
that he is well-meaning and incorruptible. What I fear is that he does not have complete
control of both the military and the police force, who at this time has not
addressed the killings committed by vigilantes. For all we know, these vigilantes
are employed by the same powers that be to silence what these people know. It is very possible that Duterte may not have
complete control of a police force that has not changed its ways of bribery,
graft and corruption and other ill-doings these nincompoops do. Duterte has no
way of checking these out. It is still
happening now.
If just for the fact that Duterte has
started a new trend of Filipinos who are well-disciplined and principled as was
the case during his campaign trail where people cleaned up after themselves to
show that they are to begin a new era, then I am for it all the way. If Duterte can provide the poliltical will we
so need, then I shall support him with much vigor. However, there seems to be a division
happening now. The Duterte supporters seem to be very sensitive when their idol
or his ways are being questioned. They
would easily cry foul and charge that the criticism is made by what they call
as “yellowtards” referring to the Aquino government and the Liberal Party who ,
according to them, is all out in getting
the power back. There will never be a true reconciliation with this seemingly
great divide. There can never be a true
exchange of ideas when one answers a criticism with a retort and character
assassination. This is why I resent what
Trillanes has done to silence Sen. Cayetano.
Why declare hime out of order when he was about to get to the
bottom. It is not for me to pass
judgment of the witness yet for I still have yet to hear him out. And hearing
him out would mean that he has to stand the scrutiny of a rigorous
interpolation. Let us move forward and let the truth be heard.
Bayard Rustin said, “If we desire a
society of peace, then we cannot achieve such a society through violence.” Are
we ready to face the consequences of the violence brought about by the
President’s war on drugs? Does the end
justify the means? Are we to consider the innocent who were killed in the
crossfire as collateral damage? Lastly, as
Atifete Jahjaga said, Democracy must be built through open
societies that share information. When there is information, there is
enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no
sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption,
subjugation and indignation.For true democracy to work, there must be a free
flow of ideas and when there is a free flow of ideas, there will always be a
clash of ideas resulting in a healthy debate. When the populace can speak their
minds at no cost of peril on their person, we get to see the right equation to
solve our problems.