‘Smiling martial law’? not ever
Then president Ferdinand Marcos signed Proclamation 1081, declaring martial law throughout the country, on Sept. 21, 1972 and announced it on national television two days later. It was advertised as a “smiling martial law.” Teodoro Valencia, whose column “Over a Cup of Coffee” in Manila Times was widely read in the ‘70s, was credited for spreading, if not originating, the phrase.
Can martial law put on a happy face? Its administrators can, as they did in the early years of the Marcos dictatorship. But not for long: eventually, Marcos’s martial law was exposed as a fraud. It was, an Inquirer editorial of Sept. 22, 2014 said, “built on a foundation of lies, scaffolding of deceit, surrounded by barbed wire of half-truths.”
Safeguards
President Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao at 10 p.m. last Tuesday, May 23. (Yesterday, just before nightfall, he said he might extend it to the Visayas.)
Which moves forward the question: with all the safeguards set up in the 1987 Constitution, can martial law be not beneficial, even benign?
The new conditions under Art. VII, Section 8 of the Constitution include:
[] there must be invasion or rebellion and public safety requires it;
[] limited to 60 days, unless Congress shortens or extends it;
[] Supreme Court, on petition of a citizen, may review the factual basis of the declaration;
[] Civilian authority continues even with martial law.
So stringent, Duterte once complained, saying he’d have them changed and, in a moment of anger or humor (the nation couldn’t tell), threatened declare martial and shun the conditions.
Why we cannot
He seems to have changed tack since then. On the Mindanao declaration, the Palace slipped into the news release a note that Duterte was cutting short his Russian visit to rush back and report to Congress.
Which seems to assure the nation that he won’t violate the Constitution.
The safeguards notwithstanding, martial law cannot be smiling. Well, those entrenched in power and executing it may be smiling but not plain citizens who’d suffer from any abuse and other adverse effects of authoritarian rule. Remember ML 1972.
Military rule is an aberration, a disruption allowed only for a specified emergency: invasion or rebellion no less. In such a time, the nation hopes for the early return of normalcy, even as it braces for the worst that could happen during the abnormal period.