Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste says that the country is in an undeclared state of martial law. He can feel it, he claims.
Either I am clueless or Leviste is dishonest or delusional. Because he’s young and has not had the (dis)advantage of living through martial law, I’ll cut him some slack.
I lived through the horrors of a dictatorship. I was 20 when the original President Marcos declared martial law in 1972, old enough to recognize signs of his intention to dismantle our democratic system.
He rounded up his critics and political enemies and jailed them. Those he could not find, he hunted.
He shut down Congress, and coopted the judiciary. He padlocked newspaper offices and radio and television stations. He strictly enforced a curfew and banned meetings.
Pray tell me, has the government of President Marcos 2 jailed any enemy or critic? Has Congress been shut down (not an entirely bad idea, by the way)? Have the news outlets been silenced? Are we banned from going out on certain hours of the day?
No. BBM’s critics are still at it, including the bloggers and trolls, if there is any distinction between them, and including a certain congressman who revels in the publicity that he has suddenly gotten.
Congress is as noisy as ever, the newspapers, radio and TV continue to run stories that are critical of the president, and, except in certain areas where the local government has imposed a curfew, travel is not restricted any time of the day.
But Leviste claims that the administration’s proclivity to file cases has scared many from breaking their silence. Isn’t this the clearest indication that there is no martial law, de facto or de jure?
When a person as powerful as the President recognizes the jurisdiction of the judiciary and its exalted status as a co-equal, how can you claim that he is a despot in the making?
I did not vote for this president. I still believe that Leni Robredo was the better candidate. But let us not invent stories to serve our agenda.