All throughout its six-year controversial life, the administration of outgoing President Benigno Aquino III marked every anniversary associated with the birth or death of his parents, ex-Senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and ex-President Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco-Aquino; the birth and death of the late President Ferdinand Marcos; the proclamation of martial law in 1972; and the so-called 1986 Edsa Revolution, with press releases about the perceived evil that is martial law.
Contemporary Philippine television media share the same anti-martial law propensity. During those anniversaries, conventional and cable television networks always feature programs praising Ninoy and Cory Aquino, and denouncing Marcos and his martial law regime.
The propensity of the local television media to go on a Marcos-bashing spree during those anniversaries began as early as March 1986—days after Cory Aquino seized power, abolished the 1973 Constitution, and ran the government without any legislature to check her and her relatives. Almost all the networks broadcast anti-Marcos video segments between and within programs, especially during the prime time hours (when audiences are biggest for a particular broadcast day). Documentaries highlighting abuses committed during the martial law period were also aired. These programs conveyed the same message over and over, year after year—that martial law is evil.
This anti-martial law sentiment became a convenient propaganda tool of President Aquino III during the recent election campaign.
When vice presidential candidate Bongbong Marcos was leading, first in the surveys and later in the early post-election count (or prior to Smartmatic’s unauthorized adventure in the cyber canvass), President Aquino III and his propagandists in the now-moribund Liberal Party used the martial law bogeyman to scare voters from casting their ballots in favor of Bongbong. To elect Bongbong, the LP propaganda line went, is to return the Philippines to a regime of martial law. In fact, during the homestretch of the political campaign, the LP heralded its vice presidential bet, Leni Robredo, as the only obstacle to martial law under a Bongbong Marcos vice presidency! However, the mystery of how a vice president can actually exercise the president’s exclusive power to resort to martial law was unexplained by the LP propagandists.
President Aquino III also used the martial law scare tactic against
then-presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte when the latter took the lead in the surveys early this year. After Duterte won the presidential race and announced his hardline, or even unorthodox, policies against crime and corruption, Aquino III hastily began associating Duterte with martial law. Duterte simply ignored the outgoing president’s tirade against him.
Ironically, President Aquino III recently admitted to the news media that he once considered placing western Mindanao under martial law so as to maintain peace and order in the area. That admission practically diluted Aquino’s past insinuations against martial law. It also indicates that all along, either Aquino III took the Filipino people for a ride, or he does not understand the concept of martial law to begin with.
It cannot be denied that abuses were committed during the martial law administration. Upon the proclamation of martial law in 1972, military personnel who used to be confined in countryside camps and barracks, non-commissioned officers and low-ranking commissioned officers in particular, suddenly found themselves vested with power beyond their wildest expectations. Many of them got drunk with that power and committed abuses, and even atrocities for that matter.
Perhaps that was to be expected because abuses inevitably take place when there is a radical change in the political environment of a country, and martial law was one such radical change. This statement, of course, is not an endorsement of those abuses. The historical context, however, must be asserted to set the record straight.
Be that as it may, the 1987 Constitution was drafted by the 1986 Constitutional Commission, which is composed of less than 50 Aquino appointees. With the exception of about four of those commissioners, everyone in that constituent assembly was a staunch ally of the president. The alleged evil that is martial law notwithstanding, the 1987 Constitution retained the power of the president to place the Philippines, or any part thereof, under martial law.
Being so, the question to ask President Aquino III is this—what is wrong with martial law when the 1987 Constitution sponsored by his own mother allows it in the first place? Resort to martial law is an emergency measure, and as long as emergency situations may arise in the future, a sweeping condemnation of martial law is unwarranted and unfair.
Regardless of the reasons that motivated the Constitutional Commission to retain the power of the president to resort to martial law in the 1987 Constitution, the fact that the executive power to proclaim martial law is countenanced in the current charter is a clear indication that martial law is not as objectionable as President Aquino III and his LP minions have tagged it to be.
Truth to tell, martial law under the 1987 Constitution is far different from that proclaimed in September 1972 under the 1935 Constitution. Under the current charter, the proclamation of martial law can be overturned by Congress, and is subject to judicial review by the Supreme Court. In addition, martial law under the current charter is for a limited duration only. Clearly, the military abuses Aquino III always publicly (and conveniently) associates with martial law under President Marcos, cannot happen under the 1987 Constitution.
In fine, when President Aquino III associated President-elect Duterte and Bongbong Marcos with martial law, Aquino was not telling the Filipino people the whole truth about what martial law under the 1987 Constitution was all about.
Evidently, Aquino’s statements about martial law are speculative and unsubstantiated views made by an individual living in his own make-believe world. Perhaps, he will return to his senses when plunder raps are finally lodged against him by his enemies.