The worst thing that can be said about the proclamation of a state of emergency is that it may be an overkill reaction. In that case, it should be lifted. But so far, the persons or institutions that have been directly affected by the implementation of the state of emergency have been allowed to seek legal recourse and we have not seen any signs to indicate that the state of emergency is just a euphemism for martial law. To the best of our knowledge, for instance, rallies have not been banned. And we are happy to say that all past rallies have been relatively peaceful. The only tragic gathering was the Ultra stampede and that certainly was not a rally. That was lack of crowd control. The sad part was that most of the trampled victims were old women. Filipinos know how to comport themselves in a crowd. The finest examples were the two EDSAs.
One reason why many people are interpreting the current state of emergency with martial law is the reports that some people are being arrested without a warrant. Another is the reported raid of the Daily Tribune. A newspaper should only be closed if it was operating without a permit. If it is guilty of such crimes as inciting to rebellion or libel, they should be charged in court. As far as I am concerned, we don’t have the least doubt that we enjoy press freedom in this country. We lost that freedom only twice – during the Japanese occupation and the Marcos dictatorship.
According to reports, Malacañang is seriously considering ending the State of Emergency this Saturday. That is only two days away. Up to now, people are not clear as to what the state of emergency was all about.
What emergency? is the first question in everybody’s mind. We are ready to respond to a problem, but no one knows what the problem was. Actually, it is better than having Gloria Step Down demonstrations. That had died a natural death.
What we need is not a State of Emergency. What we must do is go into a period of preparedness, meaning a time to prepare our future. We have to fight poverty and create jobs for the underprivileged. We really wish, for instance, that all our major cities would embark on a project to help the street children. They should be provided with homes and education. We talk of freedom of speech, but the first freedom should be freedom from ignorance. What use is freedom of speech to a person who never went to school? What will he say? Our Armed Forces have a term for state of emergency. They call it full alert. And that is what all good citizens do, be on constant full alert. There is so much we all can do if we are all fully aware of the state of nation. That is one priceless thing we learned when we were a boy scout. Do a good turn every single day!