Analysts: Takeover at BoC testing waters on nationwide martial law

WITH his order for the Philippine military to take over the Bureau of Customs (BoC), President Rodrigo R. Duterte is “testing the waters” for the declaration of a nationwide military rule, analysts said.

“Right now, what’s happening in the BoC is just ‘testing the waters.’ I would look at it that way,” Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) sociology professor Louie C. Montemar said in a phone interview last Saturday, Nov. 3.

For his part, University of the Philippines (UP) Law Professor Antonio G.M. La Viña said there is a big chance for the President to declare martial law nationwide given his “militarian” style of leadership.

“I always put that the chance of the President declaring martial law is at 75% because that’s his frame of mind. He solves things by depending on the military,” Mr. La Viña said in a phone interview on Oct. 30.

Mr. Montemar added that if the military’s supervision of the BoC “succeeds in a way or if they package it as if it is succeeding, then that can be the basis for the President to say that they will need to make militarization [in other agencies] happen.”

“The President can really do it [martial law], but he needs good timing for it…. He’s been trying to impress to people that there are threats to safety and security for instance, and he is again raising the issue of the communists’ [ouster plot] .... He is raising various conspiracy theories…. You can see the pattern,” Mr. Montemar also said. with