Martial law redux
President Duterte alarmingly and needlessly cut short his trip to Russia and took the mic energetically on arrival for another rambling performance. He talked of martial law (ML) in Mindanao where Muslims have been
persecuted for centuries.
Those of us born in the last century may have fading memories of Marcos’ ML. Indeed, how many of us remember, or even just know about the Jolo massacre of Feb. 7-8, 1974, where 20,000 Muslim, Christian, Chinese, etc. lives were lost? (A Philippine Military Academy alum, who joined the Navy, first told me about that Jolo assault.) Or the Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat bloodbath in September 1974, where 1,500 Muslims were dispatched to paradise? Martyrs.
The captive press was silent then; not possible today, given modern technology and militancy.
In our time, Joker Arroyo, Teddyboy Locsin and I took bullets for President Cory Aquino.
She may speak for a few minutes and then leave it to us or the Cabinet in general to clarify, elaborate or nuance.
But how President Digong loves the mic. Asked a simple short question, he would meander, ramble and cuss, and leave it to his confused subalterns to explain what he really meant to say. Cussing is not policymaking. And clenched fist is a human rights salute of victims, not of oppressors.
Now his Cabinet will have to deal with the warning to spread ML to the Visayas and even Luzon, hoping to calm down our kin and friends abroad. There are also the investors, tourists and retirees who may need reassurance—let alone conservative Muslims in a faraway place with a strange-sounding name, who may be radicalized by a bloodbath in Marawi or Mindanao. Terrorism is now global. Not prudent to provoke needlessly with kanto boy braggadocio.
To deal with evacuees and refugees we may need outside help, which the President rejects—on the supposed advice of Finance Secretary Sonny Dominguez—if these come with human rights strings attached. Mild-mannered Sonny, a closet hawk? No donor would donate just because we are such nice guys. Gifts come with conditionalities, within reason, and human rights concerns are not beyond it from our tiny places in the sun.
Sadly Mr. Digong’s advisers are echoes, not voices, mainly from our common alma mater. “These days, Lex Talionis, Lex Leonum and alumni of San Beda College of Law have formed a united front behind Mr. Duterte, their most famous graduate.” (“Bond of brothers,” News, 5/21/17). “Most well-known,” perhaps?
If Marawi will serve as a laboratory for private population reduction program, heaven help us!
The President should talk less, his Cabinet, more; and the latter should take the bullets.
They should be voices, not echoes. Di siya lang lagi ang bida.
And thank you Gemma Nemenzo for “The greatest Marcos horror story never told,” through the eyes of a Moro filmmaker, on Palimbang, Sultan Kudarat. “Even as the AFP denies the existence of the massacre, according to (Teng) Mangansakan (II), the survivors still await reparation from the Commission on Human Rights for the loss of lives and property suffered by the villagers, now 42 years to this day.” Marcosian. Now Dutertismo?
R.A.V. SAGUISAG, Palanan, Makati City
