Blurred reports on the Marawi City situation

I understand the need for the government to do everything to assuage the feelings of citizens following the declaration of Martial Law by President Rodrigo Duterte. Even if Mindanao is supposedly the coverage of the martial regime, Filipinos from Visayas and Luzon get goosebumps upon the mention of this extraordinary governance.

For the record, I may not agree that there is enough factual background for Duterte to invoke his constitutional authority to declare Martial Law, I would rather ask our people to support him. This is no time to nitpick on the issue. In our governmental structure, he is the only person who is supposed to know what is going on in every part of the country. He can be wrong in this move, but given what is happening in Marawi City, the better part of the equation is to trust his judgment calls.

Theoretically, Martial Law takes place when the state's military arm is called upon to aid the civil authority in the execution of civil functions. It is essentially a police power. So, while the military does not supersede civil authority, an authority on constitutional law posits that "under martial law, police power is exercised by the executive with the aid of the military and in place of certain governmental agencies which for the time being are unable to cope with existing conditions".

If the declaration of Martial Law is coupled with the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, certain rights maybe transgressed. And that is why the citizens feel edgy. We do know that the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus shall apply only to persons judicially charged for rebellion but the powers of the administrator of martial rule are so vast that many things can take place to the detriment of the civilian population.

That is why, for the very purpose of projecting a situation that is not so dreadful, the government, in the very first hours of the declaration of Martial Law, blurted out calming reports. Efforts were made by the government to show to us that the dark experiences we had with Pres. Ferdinand Marcos' Proclamation 1081, will not be repeated. Towards this end, among the first bits of information that came to us were that the members of the Maute Group are not many, that the military forces can contain them in time, that civilians were safely evacuated, and so forth and so on.

I believe that these sources of information are not supporting Duterte. Their reports do not inspire belief. Each false report they give affects the credibility of the president's office. Fragment after fragment of facts that came out from the virtual war zone belied earlier reports. As it came about, there were more lawless elements than reported. The mayor of Marawi City bewailed, through a nongovernment facility, that no government troops were on hand to protect the city and its civilian populace. The seat of city government was defenseless.

As days rolled by, the reports conflicted with one another. With that context in mind, how can we believe the pronouncements of Malacañang that the declaration of Martial Law is a far different animal from Proclamation 1081? I do not wish to be cynical about the situation. I cannot be less honest to say that my support to Duterte's exercise of this extraordinary power is getting eroded by unreliable information being fed to the country. Let me ask this question; is there an evil hand behind this Maute affair that is following a hidden agenda?