Earlier today, the Joint-Session of Congress approved with utmost fervor the extension of Martial Law until the end of 2018 or December 31 of next year. Throughout the interpolation, the few representatives who voiced out opposition to the administration’s thrust questioned why the extension needed to go on for an entire year when the Armed Forces of the Philippines had declared the terrorist threat in Marawi decimated and scattered into insignificant portions throughout the whole of Mindanao last October 24. True enough, a year-long extension merits controversy especially when we talk about money matters.
Extending Martial Law is also an extension of war spending!
Martial Law in Mindanao is still in operation today, practically just six months since May 23, but has been estimated to have cost 6 billion pesos of government funds already. Meanwhile, assessments on post-war rehabilitation costs now amount to over 98 billion pesos as announced by the local government of Marawi without consideration to the damages caused to environmental resources and communities with public infrastructure such as schools elsewhere in Mindanao. These have all been imperiled by non-stop aerial bombings by the Philippine Air Force during the height of military rule. One can imagine the cost it would take to rebuild countless communities that will be the subject of a war government forces will be waging against communist insurgents in the coming months.
As government prepares to allocate a large sum of money for the impending bloodbath, only 2000 families displaced by the war in Marawi have been promised housing units in relocation sites while more than 400,000 evacuees have yet to return back to their home city. The rest of Mindanao are mired in deep poverty due to lack of basic social services and the billions derived from the environmental plunder of the vast mineral resources of the island have yet to benefit the southern regions of our country. As we take a closer look into the extension and its financial implications, we unravel the systematic injustice and criminal neglect of this administration over their constituents in Mindanao.
Expanded to include more than just terrorists
At first, when Duterte declared Martial Law in Mindanao his National Defense secretary let slip that the New People’s Army were part of the list of groups to be persecuted. This statement was made while the 4th Round of Peace talks with the National Democratic Front was underway, proving bad for the reputation of the Government panel. As part of their damage control effort, Malacanang repeatedly asserted that the New People’s Army was not part of those to be targeted under a state of Martial Law and that Maute rebels were the main focus of the military. But now that the peace talks has unilaterally been cancelled by the Duterte administration and proclamation 360 includes the New People’s Army as part of the long line of terrorist organizations in the Philippines, it has now become easier for the government to request congress for an extension in Martial Law while still maintaining the threat of terrorism as the primary justification.
In other words, Martial Law has not only been extended it has also been expanded to include a whole new group of people sharing no ideological, organizational or historic similarity with true-born terrorist groups. As an excuse not to attend to the democratic aspirations of a people in full revolt, the government compounds communist rebels with bandits and murderers in order to mitigate public dismay over the extension. Is Martial Law still a last resort against terrorism? Or is it now part of an elaborate counter-insurgency program? Then again, and when you put deep thought into it, the Maute group was never truly the state’s long-term enemy. The war in Marawi was a necessary step towards the grand war the AFP has always longed far. The war against the New People’s Army needed to be unfettered and widely supported by the infrastructure of Military rule in order for it to be successful. Everything unfolding today is part of that narrative. Thus, the expansion of scope.
Wild fishing expedition forthcoming!
Now that Congress in joint session has voted 240-27 in favor of the extension/expansion of Martial Law in Mindanao, all in a span of just 5 hours, the military has finally acquired their gate pass to massacre peasant communities they think are NPA controlled villages. In the cities, the military and police will be in a state of frenzy victimizing legal activists and community organizers with trumped up charges and outright cases of intimidation or even assault in order to suppress dissent and posture Mindanao as a bastion of peace in an era of military rule!
A fishing expedition will take place, where intelligence officers will undertake a massive psy war against the people of the south. People with vocal opinions against the state will be tailed and even private conversations among peers will be monitored, all as a function of Martial Law. Anything remotely sounding subversive will be branded terrorist-inclined and will be persecuted or even killed.
The War is coming
Make no mistake, the war is coming and although the staging ground is in Mindanao portions of it will be waged in all parts of the country. In Eastern Visayas, four more battalions are going to be deployed in the coming year to combat insurgency while thousands of evacuees are growing hungry and sick. Cases of harassment and the suppression of civil and political rights are popping up from different parts of the Philippines since November. Simply put, Duterte is no longer exclusively concerned with terrorists or communist rebels, he is now in a mission to quell the broad masses whom we claims to serve. The extension, expansion and the expedition to follow are all indicators revealing who Duterte truly serves and a wild guess tells us its not the people.
BAYAN Sinirangan Bisayas 