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Martial Law and state terrorism: then and now

My column’s title is the theme of the forum sponsored by cause-oriented groups in the city to commemorate on September 21 the martial law declaration by former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos.

During the martial law period, all the judicial, legislative and executive powers were rolled into one for Marcos as the head of the state. With the military and the police serving as his private army, human rights violations were widespread. Tortures, extra-judicial killings, among others, were common.

When People Power I installed Ninoy Aquino’s widow, Cory, as the new president, most thought that human rights would improve. But from her administration up to the present, institutional violations of human rights continue unabated. The present regime of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo holds the worst record with her short period since taking over from Erap Estrada in 2001.

Neri Colmenares, from the Committee for the Defense of Liberties (Codal), an organization of lawyers, shared in that forum the record of Mrs. Arroyo. Since 2001, she committed 4,027 human rights violations. For four years, 130 were abducted and believed killed. There is one killing every three days, Colmenares shared.

He added that the HRVs are among those included in the impeachment case filed against Arroyo as the government should respect the rights at all times. Unfortunately, the impeachment case was murdered, as expected, by GMAs party mates in Congress.

The Cordillera Human Rights Alliance (CHRA) also documented the violations in the region. Since 2001, it documented 101 cases of HRVs in the region involving 2,111 individuals. Their data exclude the undetermined numbers of workers’ rights violations from 2001 to the present, where such kinds of right violations are prevalent in the region.

CHRA recorded 14 civilians as victims of summary executions; three tortured and eventually killed unarmed and captured members of the NPA; 57 abductions and detention; 117 physical injuries; one mass evacuation; and 5 victims of rape. Common in the region are the use of school establishment and premises as military camp.

The documented cases are usually violations of individual’s civil and political rights. Colmenares, a victim of martial law and now a human rights lawyer, reveals collective violations of the Filipino rights of suffrage. The past presidential election was rigged by GMA and robbed the people of this sovereign right. Now we have a president who was never elected by the people not only once but twice, he added. He is referring to the ousting of Erap in 2001 where she took over as the legal successor to the ousted president and the 2004 election that she reportedly cheated and thus, declared as the winner. Now her mandate is being questioned especially so when she accepted influencing the COMELEC.

Colmenares also shares similarities between Marcos martial law and GMAs terrorism. He shared the national security doctrine where any exercise of rights, under the Bill of Rights, is considered as destabilization attempt against the state. They equated the opposition against the administration as an opposition against the state.

Equating a dissent against GMA is not a dissent against the state as she does not in fact represent the interest of the people. And she is not the state. Her followers, Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye, Justice Secretary Norberto Gonzalez, and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita are parroting the national security doctrine, that a dissent against GMA is destabilization and should be quelled.

However, we will not be cowed because sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from us. As such, we can overthrow GMA who is a violator of our basic rights and continuously fails to deliver the services to whom these are due. #

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