Martial Law: A postscript

When martial law in Maguindanao was unexpectedly lifted last Saturday, it proved that all the fears and ramblings of the opposition and their left-leaning friends, all critics of Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) were totally baseless and unfounded! As we said, many here in Cebu supported the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao, even Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, who took an opposite view to his Presidential candidate Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

Even though it was a bit late in the hour, but the support coming from Tandag Bishop Nereo Odchimar, the new president of the Catholic Bishop’s Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) was a huge moral booster for the government. After all, the Catholic Church is apolitical and therefore, they made their decision based on its necessity. Indeed, if martial law wasn’t declared, who knows the armed men of the Ampatuans could very well have gone into a shooting war with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP). After all, they had the guns and the million rounds of ammo that the AFP uncovered.

As expected, the opposition can never see anything good in this government. They virtually tried to dictate what they wanted Pres. Arroyo to do and when the President obliged in declaring martial law in Maguindanao, they cried that it was overkill! Now that martial law has been lifted, now the opposition is demanding that the Supreme Court rule on its constitutionality despite the fact that this issue is already moot and academic! It just makes me wonder, what happens when the opposition wins political power? They might just end up being the dictators that they are!

At this point, I dare say that it is time for us to learn our lessons from this incident. If you folks who hate martial law down into your bones truly want to get rid of martial law, then may I invite you to call for a Constitutional Convention (con-con) because this is the only way that we can legally remove this provision from our basic law. Just say when!

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I have to comment on a report that appeared in this paper last Sunday that more Lakas-Kampi members have defected to the Liberal Party (LP) especially on the report coming from Cebu because that wasn’t really a fresh, albeit breaking news. We already wrote in this corner two months ago that Cebu City Councilor Hilario Davide III resigned as Councilor when he accepted to be the LP’s chairman in Cebu Province. Then three weeks ago, he was “forced” by the LP to run for Cebu Governor otherwise there would have been no one to run against incumbent Governor Gwen F. Garcia.

I’m making this clarification because I suspect that there is a concerted effort by certain groups to portray that many candidates from the Lakas-Kampi are falling in line to join the LP in the hope of creating a critical mass for Noynoy. Jun Jun Davide always belonged to the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK) party of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, which allied itself with Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (GMA) in the past elections. Even his vice-gubernatorial candidate Greg Sanchez once belonged to the One Cebu Party, which was allied with the Lakas-Kampi, but they were never Kampi members. So there were no defections from Kampi!

The truth of the matter is, the LP doesn’t really have a real machinery in the Province of Cebu… they are relying on Cebu’s old and discredited political guard who were trounced in the 2004 elections by the One Cebu Party because they tried to break Cebu Province into four separate provinces, which got the ire of Cebuanos who didn’t want their Province to be broken into their personal fiefdoms so they could be Governor of a little piece of Cebu. That election gave Gov. Gwen her historic margin and the Governor’s popularity is what Jun Jun Davide will be facing on May 2010.

Meanwhile in Cebu City, the LP problems began when former Sen. Serge Osmeña III got off the LP Senatorial slate because of the entry of Ralph Recto in the Senate lineup. Then when Butch Abad gave Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña the LP Chairmanship in Cebu City, this got the ire of a staunch and original LP member in the person of former Sen. John “Sonny” Osmeña who is estranged from his cousin Mayor Osmeña. Now how will the LP unite the Osmeña’s is something I would like to see.

So far, in the Province of Cebu, I don’t see any incumbent Congressman supporting the bid of Sen. Benigno “Nonoy” Aquino, III. In Cebu City, though he can no longer run because of term limits, Deputy Speaker Raul Del Mar hasn’t yet announced whether he is sticking with the Lakas-Kampi or shifting alliances. I will just get the confirmation from either him or his daughter Cutie who is running in his stead under the BO-PK line-up.

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