OF course, President Rodrigo Duterte was exaggerating when he said he might as well declare martial law in the Visayas, because it’s within “walking distance,” apparently, of Mindanao. Anyone who promises to eat the livers of terrorists (raw, with a touch of salt and vinegar) clearly likes hyperbole.
I still wish, though, that he would be precise more often. Small-town politicians who play to the gallery as if it were still campaign season are one thing. But what the President says carries weight, as well as the potential to cause alarm here and abroad. Eleven months into this presidency, I’ve come to learn that even when he appears to be joking, there’s always an undercurrent of intent in what the President says.
At least twice this year, in January and in March, President Duterte has threatened to declare martial law in Mindanao. And now he’s done it. In the report that Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez received last Thursday night, President Duterte reported that government troops were attempting to capture Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon and Abdullah and Omarkhayam Maute of the Maute Group, when these groups took control of “major social, economic, and political foundations of Marawi City, which led to its paralysis.”
To justify a declaration that covers all of Mindanao, instead of a more precise one confined to Lanao del Sur, the President also cited “numerous acts of violence” meant to challenge the authorities: the Zamboanga siege in 2013, “the Mamasapano carnage” in 2015, the Davao bombing in 2016, and the “bombings in Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sulu, and Basilan, among others.”
That sounds like a sufficient match for the grounds the 1987 Constitution requires for the declaration of martial law: “in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it.” And then there’s the sight of children walking away from their homes in Marawi, clutching their few worldly possessions. Their families should be safe at home now, celebrating their most important feast of the year, instead of trudging to the homes of relatives and friends or to a charity kitchen rustled up by strangers.
I think we can all agree that an end to their suffering is the outcome we all hope for. Expanding the martial law declaration to the Visayas or the entire country would confirm suspicions—also fed by the “war on drugs”—that this administration favors a ruthless and disproportionate response to an imprecisely defined problem. But the declaration in Mindanao seems defensible—especially to the President’s loud and combative supporters online—because the suffering we’re beginning to see in Marawi demands an end. Whether or not that can be achieved in 60 days, we’ll have to wait and see.
That comment, though, about the Visayas being within “walking distance” from Mindanao—and in particular, Marawi—glosses over some painful facts. In 2015, when 15.6 percent of the nation’s families (and 17.9 percent in Cebu Province) were considered poor, in Lanao del Sur the number was 66.3 percent.
Is that poverty part of the cause or a consequence of Marawi’s troubles? A sincere and comprehensive effort to untangle their situation might help us begin to bridge the distance that separates us from Marawi.
When the President visited soldiers a mere hour away from Marawi, he did the right thing by trying to boost their morale and by reassuring them of his support. And then he revealed his own distance from them and from his suffering constituents, by suggesting he would take responsibility if the soldiers ended up raping women while they were there.
Indeed, the Constitution allows the President to wield martial law when necessary. When I think of this President’s proclivities and track record, I am thankful to the Constitution’s framers for the safeguards they put in place. And then I listen to his congressional allies and most fanatical supporters, and the distance between us seems impossible to bridge.