SOMEWHERE, somehow at this critical period of our existence here where we are, someone must be sacrificing and taking the cudgels for us out there.
Things are getting grimier and more disheartening, like the smug in the city so thick people are beginning to choke in the thin air each of us is trying to gulp. The past few days after President Digong’s declaration of Martial law seemed long and laborious. It has become like a nightmare was coming back in full force and there was no let up and the chance of coming out awake and alive was almost next to impossible. While we are being assured that this "kind" of martial rule is different from what we have experienced in the 70s, we cannot really be sure.
We are told to trust the president, but we cannot help but ask hard questions, like: are the president’s advisers trustworthy enough for giving him the information that is clear and free of underlying motives from which he made the basis for his action? The promoter of the so-called siege in Marawi seemed like people who have no faith in whatever Being at all, not "rebels" as government and the established media are leading us to believe, but plain hooligans or terrorists who are only after the hefty sum they are promised for sowing terror not only in the hearts of our Moro brothers and sisters, but all of us Mindanaoans.
The president’s declaration of Martial Law to address the problem of lawlessness in Marawi City seems like applying broad spectrum antibiotic to a simple cold, in effect, killing the good bacteria to eliminate a viral infection, which would then also weaken the host body and could lead to another infection.
A statement from Sowing the Seeds Of Peace in Mindanao, an aggrupation of progressive religious leaders that condemns Martial Law declaration as an act that “flouts peace processes (and) rejects lessons of history” laconically puts it this way: “Imposing Martial Law is a simplistic, militaristic, and an a historical approach to the persistence of the Bangsamoro problem. It is simplistic because it takes away recognition of the social dimensions of the continuing oppression of the Bangsamoro and their search for genuine autonomy; it reduces it into a peace and order issue. It incites Islamophobia and anti-Moro hysteria instead of forging unity against terrorism. It is militaristic as it levels up all previous all-out war approaches since the time of President Joseph Estrada.
Allowing civilians with licensed firearms to respond to perceived threats will let loose paramilitarism and vigilantism which claimed many lives in the ILAGA wars of the 1970s-80s. It is a historical because it fails to remember that the Bangsamoro armed resistance was fertilized by Martial Law itself as preluded by the Jabidah Massacre in 1968 and from there grew in scope and intensity.”
The President has earlier recognized the “historical injustices” dealt against his very own people in Mindanao, and we hope he still remembers that. We certainly hope that our president will not be falling into the militaristic trap of believing in the fallacy of a military solution in this unclear problem; that he can still see through the quagmire that clouds his clear vision. The Peace Talks must continue whatever the cost. There will be more spoilers along the way, and perhaps more confusion, as the enemies of peace will always try to stop the processes.
“On the peace talks with the NDFP, the imposition of Martial Law now appears to be Plan B or an override of the interim ceasefire to be tackled in the 5th round of negotiations in The Netherlands. Why else would the GRP need a ceasefire if Martial Law is already in place? Secretary Lorenzana had made it clear that Martial Law is not just after the Abu Sayaf-Maute group but is also aimed at the NPA problem. This goes against the peace talks’ rationale of addressing the roots of armed conflict. Additionally, Martial Law puts into serious doubt the implementation of a socio-economic reform package that may be signed. Social and economic reforms, like free land distribution, simply cannot take place in an environment where an armalite rifle hovers above a farmer’s head.”(Sowing the Seeds of Peace in Mindanao).
