As expected, the debate on the extension of martial law in Mindanao during the special joint session of Congress went along partisan lines. With the support of sycophants in both the Senate and the House, President Rodrigo Duterte had his way to extend martial law in Mindanao up to the end of this year. That’s an extension of 150 days.
Voting 261 to 18, Congress submitted to the “caprices and whim of one man,” to quote a senator after the count. To those who followed the proceedings carried live by national television, it was clearly an abdication of Congress’ responsibility to obey and follow the 1987 Constitution.
This constitutional provision was brought up early in the debate by Buhay Party List Rep. Lito Atienza when he asked the government panel and proponents of the martial law extension; “how will you explain and get around the specific provision of the 1987 Constitution limiting martial law to 60 days?”
Atienza did not get any answer as the government panel composed of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. and Executive Secretary Salvador Medialea turned their heads to each other, befuddled and looking for answers.
Clearly, Atienza who is not even a lawyer but who knows his Constitution asked the most relevant and cogent question that dug deep into the heart of the issue—the legality of the proposal to extend martial law beyond the 60-day limit.
Even clearer to those who think clearly with their heads, the overwhelming vote of President Duterte’s “supermajority coalition” showed how Congress had abdicated its duty to protect and uphold the Constitution.
As it were on matters like this, including the issue of impeachment, the whole process is a numbers game. And so it came to pass: Damn the Constitution, let’s give the President what he wants. As there are too many names in the House who followed the President’s bidding, let us just name the 16 senators who, like their House counterparts, abdicated their solemn oath to obey the Constitution.
Remember these: Cynthia Villar, Loren Legarda, Ralph Recto, Gregorio Honasan, Manny Pacquiao, Grace Poe, Joel Villanueva, Tito Sotto, Sherwin Gatchalian, Koko Pimentel, Juan Edgardo Angara, JV Ejercito, Francis Escudero, Richard Gordon, Panfilo Lacson and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
There were no vote abstentions among the senators except for Senator Antonio Trillanes who was reportedly absent during the joint session and Nancy Binay who was not yet back from a foreign trip at the time of the voting.
True to their calling, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, Senators Francis Pangilinan, Risa Hontiveros and Paulo “Bam” Aquino voted to oppose the extension of martial law. They warned that the extension is not only against the law but could be imposed nationwide by a president encouraged by a conscripted Congress.
Atienza’s core-of-the-matter issue on constitutional provision was pursued further by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Akbayan Rep. Tom Villarin, Magdalo Rep. Gary Alejano and Senator Bam Aquino who said they would elevate the legality of martial law extension before the Supreme Court.
Recall that the high court earlier upheld Duterte’s martial law imposition in Mindanao in the wake of the Marawi siege by the ISIS-Maute terror group. But its 150-day extension is an altogether different issue wherein the SC might have no recourse but follow the 60-day limit specified in the 1987 Constitution.
Outside of the joint session of Congress, former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said voting on such an issue must be done separately. He cited the fact that the joint session was presided over by both Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, showing the separate identity of each legislative chamber. This again will be the case with the Senate President and House Speaker banging their own gavel to proclaim the convening of Congress for the State of the Nation Address of President Duterte today.
No way to run a city
“Oh, my God! Is this a joke?” This was the gasp of a female reporter who could not believe what she saw during a staged cleanup drive of Manila Bay, I myself watched in disbelief a TV film footage in evening news that caught the mockery of it all.
With a group of media people in tow, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada boarded a motorized banca obviously for a photo op showing him leading a cleanup of debris in the bay area. But for some freak reason, there was not enough debris on that rare day. Whoever wrote the script for the Manila Bay area forgot to tell those garbage scavengers to leave some for the good mayor.
No problem. The “alalays,” no doubt from city hall’s sanitation department, came prepared. From plastic bags and pails, they dumped into the bay water trash consisting of empty plastic bottles, food scraps and what-have-you. Like a true thespian, the former action movie star went to work. Wearing an expensive-looking light blue designer jacket, the mayor started collecting the trash with the use of wire mesh attached at the end of a pole. Erap didn’t know (or did he?) that his own people were the ones who dumped the garbage into the water.
Compare Erap’s out-of-place expensive designer jacket for the task at hand to Digong’s camouflage army jacket in his field trip to the war zone in Marawi to show he’s one of the boys. Mr. Duterte at least had sartorial sense not to wear his trademark checkered shirt, or his barong tagalog (never mind that the sleeves are rolled up), or his occasional leather motorcycle jacket.
But more than sartorial sense, our street-smart commander in chief knows he will easily be spotted in a crowd by sharp-shooting Maute snipers if he’s in signature clothes.
Is Erap that hungry for publicity that he allowed such a cheap and illegal stunt? Getting on the boat, the hizzoner had to be helped by a couple of aides lest he fell overboard. That would have been embarrassing as the TV cameras were already rolling. At 80, the mayor showed his age. If Erap later watched a replay of this episode, he should really consider retiring and not even think of a third term in 2019.
At this point in Manila politics, I don’t see anyone challenging Erap for mayor. But then two years from now, someone is bound to step up particularly if Erap self-destructs owing to old age or some unforeseen scandal connected to a shady city hall deal. We have to remember the man had been convicted for plunder before; he was only later on pardoned by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. This fact apparently did not sink in with Manila’s masa who still elected him mayor.