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Thursday, October 20, 2005
Espinoza: Martial law fears
By Elias L. Espinoza
There are strong signs that President Arroyo will use her emergency powers as provided for by the Constitution. The street protests demanding her resignation and rebel attacks on military camps, among others, may just prod her to do it.
The calibrated preemptive response (CPR) against street protests and Executive Order No. 464 that prohibits government, police and military officials from attending congressional inquiries without her consent also fueled the suspicion.
Section 18, Article VII of the Constitution authorizes the president, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces to, 1) call out the Armed Forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion, or rebellion; 2) suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus; and 3) to place the entire country or any part thereof under martial law.
While the recent dispersal of a prayer-march in Mendiola may not be sufficient ground yet for the President to use her emergency powers, she could take advantage of the situation, especially now that the Catholic Church and other religious leaders have joined the howl over the incident.
Those who experienced then president Ferdinand Marcos’ iron-hand rule simply abhors martial law. Nobody wants it now that we have tasted true freedom and democracy.
The geniuses in Malacañang should assess their position well before advising the President to exercise her emergency powers. The present unfavorable political climate won’t allow it.
On the other hand, the revelation made by Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella during former president Erap Estrada’s trial before the Sandiganbayan could add to the people’s rage against the President.
Fuentebella said Estrada did not resign in 2001 but only took a leave of absence and delegated the presidential authority to then vice president Arroyo.
***
A Filipino-American friend who visited Cebu City told us during a dinner that we tendered recently that had the President’s admission that she talked with a Comelec official in the 2004 elections been made in the United States, she would already have been forced to resign.
But it just happened that we are in the Philippines, where a politician considers it a dishonor to step down from office because of a wrongdoing.
“We have to accord her due process and prove her guilt beyond reasonable doubt,” said former president Fidel Ramos of Arroyo. He missed the whole point.
The issue here is credibility and morality. As my friend Rick Santos would put it, the problem with us is that we don’t know how to demand for an accounting from our public servants.
(October 20, 2005 issue)
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