ORLANDO CARVAJAL:

Carvajal compares the Martial Law declared by then president Ferdinand Marcos with the Martial Law currently in effect in Mindanao, and discusses why some Mindanaoans actually support it. “… they fear more the actual terrorism of IS than the potential abuses of Martial Law. Besides, ‘this’ is clearly not ‘that’ Martial Law. Marcos was still declaring it when the military was already shuttering all media outlets and hauling off hundreds to detention cells, torture chambers and death,” he says.

Some oppose President Rodrigo Roa Duterte’s (PRRD’s) martial law from an emotion of fear of the savagery they heard of Marcos’s martial law. They were too young to experience “that” martial law. Mostly from Luzon and the Visayas, they also have only a vicarious and superficial knowledge of the situation in Mindanao.

But some who suffered under Marcos react from a combination perhaps of emotion and political bias to “this” as if it’s “that” martial law all over again.

Others, like traditional political parties, object to “this” martial law in a manner that says they just want to advance their political agenda. The Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) and sister parties oppose “this” from an ideological dictate which blind-sides them into not seeing the IS as a common enemy of the Filipino people.

Still others shoot “this” from the hips because they mistrust PRRD and/or hate his guts for his uncouth and disturbing un-presidential ways.

I lived and worked in Mindanao at the height of “that” martial law and of the Mindanao Muslim conflict from the seventies to the nineties. Hence, I am not surprised that the most supportive of ‘this” martial law are the Mindanaoans who tell patronizing imperial Manila journalists, politicians and militants that they fear more the actual terrorism of IS than the potential abuses of martial law.

Besides, “this” is clearly not “that” martial law. Marcos was still declaring it when the military was already shuttering all media outlets and hauling off hundreds to detention cells, torture chambers and death. Like the morning after, soldiers in full battle gear arrived at the rectory of St. Joseph Parish in Mabolo to “invite” me for questioning. None of that is happening now except in fake news from people with hidden agenda.

“This” martial law is an extreme solution to the violent extremism of IS. The prior right to reject it as unjustified belongs to Mindanaoans who stand to directly benefit from its success or suffer from its failure. And they are mostly one in supporting it. We should, by the way, distinguish the “IS problem” from the “Mindanao Muslim problem” for which peace talks with the MILF are on-stream but which the IS could scuttle unless stopped.

I, therefore, opt to defer to this prior right and stand in solidarity with Mindanaoans who are asking that we unite to fight off an aggressor that is known world-wide to speak only the language of violence. The IS clearly is anti-Filipino, anti-Muslim and anti-human. We cannot afford to be divided against a proven ruthless common enemy.

Still, by its nature, one can never tell if Martial Law would turn into something much uglier. If it does, we should also cross that bridge in solidarity with Mindanaoans.