MARTIAL LAW IN MINDANAO 2009

Every Filipino is aware that Mindanao has rally been a restless place since civilization began in this land. We cannot look back any farther through history because resolving it and understanding would have prevented the declaration of martial law at all. There were many attempts to comprehend but we never did and never will we understand it for a long time.

On November 23 of this year, a gruesome massacre happened in Maguindao, one of the major provinces of Mindanao. The government acted upon it not only because it involved media people but also because it involved killing 58 people in one time.

The reason of the killing was all political. The victims were to submit a certificate of candidacy for one of the governor aspirants and they were stopped by armed men and were massacred. The perpetrators were believed to be members of a strong family clan with strongholds in every corner of the provincial government. It is believed that this clan holds a strong private army which makes them so formidable in this part of the country. The suspects are the Ampatuan family.

These private armies were suppose to be civilian volunteers to help the government in suppressing rebellion. They have created these groups so that local government can manage to defend and protect their constituents against the atrocities of rebellion that have been going on there for almost half a century. These private armed group are hired by the local government, funded by the local government and trained by the military. The only loophole behind this set up is that these armies who are supposed to be civilian volunteers have their loyalties dissuaded from the central government. And these are the same armies whom everyone suspects to be the people used to massacre the innocent civilians in Maguindanao.

The Armies' help have now become a pain in the neck. The local government lead by the governor himself has gone out of bounds with their civilian volunteers, the civilian volunteers were supposed to be there to quell the rebellion but instead they were used by their leaders to lord over their constituents thereby making them instruments of terror.

Now the massacre came about and the investigation has rolled. The civilian volunteers, a government brainchild, has turned out to be lost command which caused for the declaration of martial law.

A lot of people are questioning the logic behind the declaration of martial because according to the constitution there has to be rebellion and there has to be an invasion in order for it to be declared. In the case of the Maguindanao situation, it appears to be that the rebellion and invasion are just the military's apprehension that it might happen thereby martial rule has to be declared. It was a preemptive move which is unconstitutional. there was no rebellion and invasion at all even up this writing.

The pursuit for the Ampatuans, the primary suspects for the massacre was relatively smooth, There were no untoward resistance from the civilian volunteers and in fact the present governor himself was interviewed openly on tv appealing for sobriety on their issue, but it seemed that the government is bent on going ahead with martial rule.

The military have unearthed a lot of high caliber weapons suspected to be owned by the civilian volunteers controlled by the Ampatuans. The military reported that there was a build up of forces in the vicinity but so far as the news coverage is showing there was none. What the government could have done was to implement the law accordingly, arrest people if necessary and never to pussyfoot on suspects territory specially in enforcing the law.

In the 1972 martial rule then under President Marcos' regime before he became so engrossed with power to become a dictator, a fearsome atmosphere was sowed over the land and instilled in the minds of the people that martial rule was legitimate. Martial law he declared, then came the history of abuses and corruption in the Philippines that lasted 20 years. I say sow terror because the fearsome scenarios were just a concoction by the Marcos hooligans to justify the declaration of Martial Law.

Only a few liked the martial law years and we will never allow it to happen again, but it came at the present through the backdoor in the guise of an imagined rebellion and invasion. Could be that history is repeating by itself? Watch out Philippines - -