The yellow opposition, for lack of any sensible thing to say, is accusing the majority of their colleagues of reneging on their duty to convene and vote jointly on the resolution for the President to report on the need to impose martial law.
Without admitting it, the opposition is exhibiting its downright stupidity. When the majority of the members of both Houses of Congress refused to sign the resolution, they are, in truth, against the idea of pre-empting the decision of the President. Even if Resolution No. 216 is pursuant to Section 18, Article VII of the Constitution, their refusal invariably means that there was no need to ask the President why he declared martial law and suspended the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus.
In fact, the opposition figures themselves are to blame for wrongly interpreting the provision of the Cory Aquino-concocted martial law. Instead of demanding that the President report within 48 hours from his proclamation of martial law or to submit a report in person or in writing to Congress, they prematurely filed a resolution to examine the validity of the proclamation.
The effect was a political disaster. It meant the President did not need to report any more because they had already prejudged his decision. Second, the mere fact that the resolution was not signed by the majority of the members of both Houses means that there was no more reason for Congress to tackle the declaration.
The problem is that these hypocrites are speculating on what will happen, and not assessing whether martial law has attained its objective. They should examine their position from this standpoint that martial law is a reactive and not a proactive action. It is a given fact that some of our precious liberties will be temporarily suspended to give way to the more pressing problem of restoring peace and order, and in saving the lives of our people. We cannot have both. If President Duterte declared martial law without any antecedent facts, then we should take it that he has established a dictatorship.
But that is not the case. It was the yellow opposition that violated the process on how the President would go about implementing the national emergency. They thought they could grandstand to castigate the President—but it turned out to be their grandest stupidity.
It was a downright lie for the opposition to say that violence was not pervasive to necessitate the declaration of martial law. To remind them, the power to declare martial law, even without the Constitution granting it to him, is always vested in the President. US President Abraham Lincoln declared martial law to contain the secessionist rebellion in the South even if that power was not given him by the US Constitution. Readily, when US Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney questioned him, Lincoln, by a quick stroke of wit, answered, “Are we going to save the Constitution or the Republic?”
In the third petition filed by former senator Wigberto Tañada, Bishop Emeritus Deogracias Iñiguez, Bishop Broderick Pabillo, Bishop Antonio Tobias, Adelaida Agrubay, Shamah Bulangis and Cassadra Deluria, they admitted that the failure of Congress to hold a joint session “deprived” them of a deliberative and interrogatory process to review martial law and the public of the “transparency” necessary for a clear understanding of the factual basis of the declaration. These hypocrites deny the truth that martial law revolves around the issue of national security, specifically the rights of the people living in the war-torn city of Marawi.
It would be treason and a culpable violation of the Constitution for the President to wait until the lawless violence has spread to satisfy the quench of the opposition for a factual basis of martial law. When we elected him our President, we reposed our trust in him as our commander-in-chief. There is no reason for him to wait until the rebellion engulfs the whole of Mindanao.
It is most regrettable that the hypocrites are again comparing the present martial law to that of President Marcos. Even if we take it that isolated abuses were committed, nonetheless they never even attempted to mention that it was imposed in response to the violent provocation made by the same communists now negotiating with the government by their bombing of Plaza Miranda. They never attempted to quantify the antecedent facts that led to the declaration of martial law for fear that it would justify and validate the action of the former President.
Rather, Tañada, Saguisag and their cabal of congenial liars are plainly engaged in pure speculation and propaganda under cover of invoking their right to obtain firsthand information of the “mischief” and the “gross danger” that could happen under the mantle of martial law. But did they consider that when they began to tread on speculation, they are in effect engaged in propaganda through the most sinister method of discrediting the government, vis-a-vis serving the cause of the enemy.
It was even absurd for Senator Risa Hontiveros to say that the siege of Marawi City happened because the Maute group wanted to shield a notorious leader of the Abu Sayyaf, Isnilon Hapilon, from arrest. She assumed that the marauding armed men belonging to the Maute group and other Islamic terrorists using bullhorn in urging people to withdraw their allegiance to the Republic was not intended to overrun the city. Senator Hontiveros is already putting her own elements on how the crime of rebellion is committed. Taking that premise, she hopes to justify her claim that there was no factual basis for President Duterte to declare martial law even if it was apparent that the various Islamic terrorist groups have already coagulated to fight against the government.
Moreover, can any of the hypocrites, particularly the muddleheaded representatives led by Edcel Lagman, Tomasito Villariva, Gary Alejano, Emmanuel Billones, Teodoro Brawner Baguilat, Jr. and Edgardo Erice honestly say it was in defense of Hapilon when without any warning, those terrorists manning the checkpoints ordered all the men to disembark from the dump truck and mercilessly riddled their bodies with automatic gunfire? All were killed because they wanted to run away from the embattled city of Marawi. It was not their religion why they were killed but for their refusal to be used as hostages to stop the advancing government troops.