Bombings Raise Specter of Martial Law

“We are expecting Malacanang to draw up a scenario where eventually the opposition will be implicated in bombings and so-called destabilization plots,” Binay said.

Marcosian

Binay added that the present situation bear similarities to the months prior to the declaration of martial law in September 1972. “What we are seeing is a reinvention of the martial-law playbook of 1972. But the motive is the same: the hunger for power,” he said.

Former House Speaker Jose de Venecia had the same observation. He said the incidents point to the same pattern of bomb scare and attacks that preceded the declaration of martial law.

Former Senate president Franklin Drilon saw the bombings and a reported plan to reshuffle Arroyo’s Cabinet, particularly those who hold national-security portfolios, as a possible prelude to the imposition of emergency rule. “We are concerned that this could mean the implementation of drastic measures, including emergency rule,” Drilon said in a report by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

Binay recalled that Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita had earlier said that Arroyo will declare martial law if there is chaos. The recent bombings, Binay said, “are intended to create a perception of chaos.”

In a regular press conference in Malacañang last month, Ermita said the president will not hesitate to declare martial rule once oppositors of charter change proceed with their plan to stage street protests.

The Lower House is expected to convene itself into a constituent assembly after Arroyo’s Sona. Before they adjourned last month, Arroyo’s allies in Congress rammed through a resolution that allowed for the constituent assembly to take place. Arroyo’s critics said this is her way of ensuring that either the Constitution is amended so she could run again in 2010 or turn Congress into a parliament where she can be prime minister.

Last Option?

De Venecia said Arroyo is considering the martial law or state of emergency as an option to keep herself in power. “That is the last option if charter change fails,” the former speaker said. Aroyo’s term will expire on June 30, 2010.

Should Arroyo declare martial law, Binay said he will not “sit still and accept such blatant abuse of power.”

Binay said the bombings will not deter the opposition in its plans to stage protest actions culminating in a rally during Arroyo’s Sona on July 27.

“We must not allow these bombings to be used as a pretext for iron-fisted rule. Neither should we allow more innocent civilians to die so that a climate of fear is created and protests against the Arroyo regime are weakened,” said Renato Reyes Jr., secretary-general of Bayan, one of the groups that have traditionally held anti-Sona protests.

Bonifacio Ilagan, president of the First Quarter Storm (FQS) Movement, also believes that Arroyo is capable of declaring martial law.

“She is pushed against the wall. Her term will soon end, she is constrained to participate in the next elections. Her options are now limited,” Ilagan told Bulatlat in an interview.

“Besides, she wants to prolong her stay so as to evade accountability for all the crimes she has committed against the people,” Ilagan added.

Another martial-law activist, Judy Taguiwalo, shares the same opinion. “I think she’s capable of doing it, considering her record of deceit, fraud and corruption,” she said of the president.

Taguiwalo, faculty regent of the University of the Philippines and spokesperson of Pagbabago! Movement for Genuine Change, drew parallelisms between Marcos and Arroyo. “Marcos’s term would have ended by 1973. The 1970 constitutional convention came out with a Marcosian Constitution. He then declared martial law in 1972.”

Both Taguiwalo and Ilagan were political detainees during martial law.

Ilagan said, however, that it would be the “height of stupidity” if Arroyo and her cohorts in the military followed what Marcos did.

Still, he said, “given the official acts of this administration in suppressing dissent, Arroyo may declare martial law.” He cited the “calibrated preemptive response” and the declaration of state of emergency at the height of protests against electoral fraud in 2004.