Chavit Singson and Andal Ampatuan, Sr. in happier days
The Mexican Standoff between the administration and the Ampatuan clan seems to be over. It’s ever-ginger approach to coming to grips with the outpouring of domestic and international indignation put the government in an untenable situation. Something had to be done. The Ampatuans were masterfully playing legal ping-pong with the government, securing a Writ of Amparo from the Supreme Court (seeking protection from the military!); foreign forensics experts investigating the Ampatuan Massacre at one point returned to Manila after being intimidated by unidentified men (the investigators said that men have been tailing them from their hotel to the crime site; they have also been making “inquiries” about the investigators); the discovery of an arms cache in Ampatuan property led to all sorts of speculation that items embarassing or incriminating to high officials had been discovered, too, and might leak out.
At 7:46 PM last night, word began to circulate that martial law would be imposed in Maguindanao province, that Lt. Gen. Ferrer would be put in charge, and a mass arrest of the Ampatuans conducted. There’d been talk of this possibility for a few days: government had prepared the martial law issuance and related documents a week ago, but in the middle of the week, the Armed Forces of the Philippines supposedly expressed reluctance while the President herself was said to be equivocating on the move. But by last night, it seems that the decision had been made to take the plunge; within a couple of hours, ABS-CBNNews.com decided to break the story.
The Palace issued the usual ritual denials (they served a useful purpose, Senator Aquino said he held back from issuing a statement last night because of the Palace’s denial) . But at 7:30 AM today, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita appeared on TV to read Proclamation 1959. Martial law in Maguindanao except for some places, and the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus for the duration.
Government went on the offensive and held press conferences during which the military and police made soothing noises while Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera laid out the government’s case to justify martial law in most of Maguindanao. She said government had basically ceased to exist in Maguindanao, nothing was getting done, no services delivered -not even the issuance of death certificates, she claimed. The courts, she said, weren’t functioning. It was tantamount to a rebellion, the effect being that allegiance had been withdrawn from the state.
Essentially, she laid presented an argument for a new species of rebellion (the law, the Revised Penal Code, which predates the present Constitution, defines rebellion as an overt act): a “looming and in fact, practically an overthrow of government,” perhaps hemmed in by the military point of view if one accepts scuttlebutt the military was ambivalent about martial law: Gen. Guadiencio Pangilinan, who appeared in the press conference with Devanadera, said the situation in the province was that the Ampatuans had the “capability to undertake it, it was imminent,” but that the province was “not on the verge of rebellion.” Press Secretary Cerge Remonde helpfully pointed out that the President acted to “quell imminent rebellion.”
Devanadera said the state of emergency proclaimed by the President remains in place in Cotabato City and Sultan Kudarat province, while martial law and the suspension of the Writ is in place in Maguindanao (except for MILF camps, of which three out of seven are located in the province). Military and police officials said they’re hunting down a hundred or so suspects, though Devanadera was careful to distinguish that martial law was not imposed in order to facilitate the prosecution of massacre-related cases, but on the basis of a collapse in government functions. According to her, those suspected of complicity in the massacre would continue to be accorded all their constitutional rights, while the suspension of the Writ still requires anyone arrested and charged with rebellion to be charged within three days.
Reporters badgered her on her apparent disinclination to weigh in over the use of “invited for questioning” with reference to the Ampatuans taken into government custody. She said she couldn’t comment because she wasn’t familiar with actual circumstances on the ground. This may be legal circumspection on her part: if, for example, the Supreme Court declares the proclamation of martial law illegal, then the Ampatuans’ lawyers might claim arrests undertaken and evidence seized as fruits of the poisoned tree.
Whatever the case, two contrasting images presented themselves. First was the military showing off a warehouse full of arms said to belong to the Ampatuans, and the other, contrasting picture, was of Andal Ampatuan Sr. being carted off to a hospital. In the meantime, his son, current ARMM Governor Zaldy Ampatuan is in General Santos City, which isn’t covered either by the state of emergency or martial law.
My feeling is public opinion is on the side of the President, applauding martial law as a kind of cutting of the Gordian knot. Her action is perceived by the public as a means to reimpose national authority on the province, and as decisive blow against the impunity of the Ampatuans. And yet: the Ampatuans seem capable, still, of resisting by means of the law. What’s been accomplished has been to neutralize their military power (though even here, there might be some hyperbole on the part of officialdom: while ARMM sources had indicated a battalion-strength private army for the Ampatuans, now government is saying the private army they’re in the process of neutralizing was two battalion-strong).
The government having made its case, the ball is now in two courts: that of Congress, and almost certainly, in the Supreme Court. Last night the Speaker of the House began by saying he didn’t think martial law was necessary, and that he personally felt that the existing state of emergency should suffice. By this morning, he’d changed his tune, saying there was a broad consensus among legislators that martial law was the right thing to do.
He then shifted from saying he felt it would be difficult, if not impossible, to muster a quorum for Congress, to proposing the novel theory that Congress only had to convene to consider the President’s martial law proclamation if it was inclined to reject it. Otherwise, Congress didn’t have to meet. He then amended his views to suggest the House and Senate should hold caucuses on Monday and that it might be possible to hold a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday to consider the President’s message justifying her proclamation.
Various legal opinions have been put forward pointing out that Congress ought to have convened by 9 PM Saturday or 7:30 AM Sunday at the latest, as the Constitution requires Congress to convene to consider any martial law proclamation within a day (do you reckon it from the actual time it was signed, or the time it was announced?) while some legislators opined that the 24 hour summons only applies of Congress isn’t in session -which doesn’t make sense to me; if the Constitution imposes an emergency requirement when not in session, shouldn’t Congress actually convene sooner if not on recess? But the long and short of it is, the Constitution assumes legislators would act post haste, but there’s nothing to stop Congress from dragging its feet.
Then again, no one doubts that in the specific instance in the Constitution, when both chambers vote together and not separately, that the administration will muster the numbers to swamp the Senate and enthusiastically endorse the President’s proclamation if necessary.
The Palace is eyeing public opinion keenly. After the Secretary of Justice held her press conference, it was announced the Secretary of the Interior would hold another press conference later that afternoon (Sec. Puno of the DILG was quoted throughout the day as having expressed a negative opinion about martial law); it was postponed to Sunday. Either to give time for the Palace to reel him in, or (which seems more likely to me) to take stock of public opinion and see what sort of spin is required.
As far as I’m concerned, what Congress actually does -whether it perfunctorily approves, or in an orgy of bootlicking endorses and even extends, the President’s martial law proclamation- matters less than what the President has accomplished. She broke the last post-Edsa taboo in our politics. This was a line presidents were expected not to cross with impunity. It was a line, of course, the President had tried to cross before, in 2006, when she tried to impose martial law under the rubric of a state of emergency, ignoring Cory Aquino’s precedent of requesting emergency powers from Congress to specify her authority to meet an emergency. Infighting within the cabinet led to the President’s efforts being frustrated, with one side claiming she could exercise vast powers, another faction saying she couldn’t.
This time, she has declared martial law without actually exercising anything publicly perceptible as out of the ordinary, legally; but the point has been made, the line crossed with bands blaring. Along the way she is attempting to redefine established understandings of what constitutes rebellion, which, together with invasion, remain the grounds for such a proclamation.
It will still be tricky: the armed forces itself telegraphed its position by publicly stating it believed martial law anywhere else in the country is unnecessary. Legal opposition, while slow and cumbersome, has been aroused; political opposition may be on the defensive for now, but if, beyond parading arms caches and so forth which inevitably lead back to questions of how the Ampatuans amassed such an arsenal under the watch of the present dispensation, the public begins to see that the President hasn’t really moved the massacre case forward, and worse, if tensions erupt elsewhere in the country, then public opinion may shift away from the administration.
There’s a couple of articles providing an insight into what has changed and what hasn’t, in terms of warlords, political leaders, and the Ampatuans.Some background reading I’d recommend includes Alex Tizon’s Why Andal Ampatuan Jr. Thought He Could Get Away With It in PCIJ, and Random Salt’s “A mere aberration.”
Veteran journalist Patricio Diaz recounted, in 2002,
When I left Cotabato City in mid-1996, practically all town mayors of Maguindanao had residential houses, if not mansions, in Cotabato City.
Many of them only reported for work in their municipalities, but did not reside there.
Rivals and allies all live in Cotabato City. These mayors or politicians are datus. Besides the legally authorized security from the police or military, they have platoons of alalay (loyal followers) for security escorts. They create a very incendiary situation.
Datus observe strictly and sensitively protocol according to their ranks. Government elected officials, no matter how high in position, defer to the datus if they (officials) happen to be commoner or lower in rank.
This factor seriously into the maintenance of peace and order…
Does it mean that these rival and feuding politicians in the city cannot be put in their proper senses?
They can if Mayor Sema will do a Juliano — Mayor Teodoro V. Juliano. He did not appeal. He challenged. Not just threatened.
When he took over from Mayor Datu Mando Sinsuat in 1967, he gave to the police the armored car which he had built in his machine shop.
With the police under his direct control, he was able to check politicians and their escorts. Under the succeeding mayors – Mayor Juan J. Ty and Mayor Ludovico D. Badoy, “battles” among politicians’ security escorts were unknown…
Feuds among scions of Maguindanao datus are not new. In the 1950s, for instance, the Sinsuats could not cross Quirino Bridge in the north.
The Baraguirs and Matalams could not cross Tamontaka Bridge in the south. The Piangs who came down the city via Rio Grande could not cross Tamontaka Bridge.
There were occasional “battles” in the city when, by chance, scions of rival clans met in restaurants or night spots. A scion of a Piang was shot right in his law class in Notre Dame College (now university) sometime in 1957 by a loyal follower of the Sinsuats.
Fortunately, with the passage of time, scions of Maguindanao datus from both across the Quirino Bridge and Tamontaka Bridge had learned to accept each other as friends, equals, associates.
I think that was the work of education.
However, that incident between the grandson of Gov. Andal Ampatuan and the son of former Mayor Datu Ibrahim “Toto” Paglas in a night spot in Davao City showed that bad blood is really difficult to banish.
Hot heads and pride among the young can trigger trouble.
That used to happen in Cotabato City in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Among the datus, security escorts are in keeping with their social class.
The power of the traditional datus was challenged by “commoners” in the 1970s, those unable to adapt lost their power; others flourished, or became allies and subordinates of new warlords. See also the Inquirer editorials Overlords and Political entrepreneurs, which in turn pointed to The Ruthless Political Entrepreneurs of Muslim Mindanao by Francisco Lara Jr.
There’s been a great deal of finger-pointing concerning who nurtured the monster known as Andal Ampatuan, Sr. In an interview was aired last Tuesday on “Strictly Politics,” Fr. Eliseo Mercado (see his blog entries, Part 1 and Part 2 on the Ampatuan Massacre), well-known peace advocate dispelled earlier reports that Cory Aquino “created the ‘monster’,” by appointing Andal Ampatuan Sr. as OIC of Maganoy Maguindanao in 1986. On the contrary, Mercado pointed out that Aquino removed Andal Ampatuan Sr (a Marcos appointee), and replaced him with Datu Bodhi Ampatuan, a non-political member of the Ampatuan clan. The good fortune of Ampatuan Sr. took place after the term of Aquino. Here’s his description of what happened, Ampatuan’s rise to paramount warlord status:
The rise of a paramount ‘warlord’ does not come often.
Usually, the rise and fall of a paramount warlord depended on the whims and caprices of the real paramount LORD that resides along the Pasig River.
The Ampatuan clan was able to venture outside their traditional ‘domain’ (Maganoy) with the ‘blessing’ of the paramount LORD in Malacañang.
Datu Andal Ampatuan, Sr. was already the ‘ruler’ of Maganoy during the time of Ferdinand Marcos.
President Cory Aquino in 1986 removed him from office and deprived him of access to the security forces of the state after EDSA 1.
But in the first election under the 1987 Constitution, Datu Andal Sr. became the undisputed Mayor of Maganoy.
His rival, Datu Surab Abutazil, also of the Ampatuan clan, was assassinated in broad daylight in a cafeteria right in the market place of Maganoy.
Mayor Andal was charged for the murder of Datu Surab but later the case was dismissed for lack of witnesses.
The turning point for the Ampatuan clan happened during the 2001 local elections.
With the full support of the PNP and the AFP, Datu Andal had beaten the incumbent Maguindanao Governor and the 1st ARMM Governor, Zacaria Candao.
The decision to shift support to Datu Andal was the perception that Gov. Candao was MILF or sympathetic to the MILF.
Datu Andal became the ‘avid’ supporter of President Gloria in her decision to run for the Presidency in 2004.
He “delivered” the whole province to Gloria against the more popular Fernando Poe, Jr.
This electoral ‘feat’ made Datu Andal the new ‘anointed’ one not only for the province but also for the entire ARMM.
It was no accident in 2005, when the Ampatuan made a run for the head ‘honcho’ of the ARMM.
It was an invitation to the government and President Gloria to shift to a more ‘manageable and predictable overseer’ over the ARMM after almost nine years of disarray under the rule of the MNLF (more than five years under Nur Misuari and 3 years under Parouk Hussin).
With the ARMM falling into the hands of the Ampatuan clan and under the total patronage of Malacañang, the hold of the clan over the ARMM and Maguindanao has become undisputed.
It is a steady and phenomenal rise to almost absolute power.
The last known paramount Lord of the Cotabato Empire province was Datu Udtog Matalam in the 50’s and early 60’s.
In Christiane Amanpour’s blog, she reproduced Maria Ressa’s story chronicling the rise of Ampatuan Sr.:
The Ampatuan family’s rise to power began in the Marcos era, when it closely allied with the military to fight the Moro National Liberation Front or MNLF. When the MNLF signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, the enemy changed to the MILF, now the largest Muslim insurgency in the country.
In the late 1990’s, Andal Ampatuan, Sr., avowedly anti-MILF, was handpicked by the military to run as governor against a rival who was supportive of the MILF. Ampatuan won in 2001 in an election that was largely seen to have been manipulated by the military. He was described as a “military-sponsored warlord.”
He gained even greater power after he helped Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo win the 2004 presidential elections. She won by such a large margin in his areas of influence, including all the votes in three Maguindanao towns, that her victory became suspicious.
In exchange, the Ampatuan family asked for money, guns and power. In July 2006, President Arroyo overturned a clause in the Philippine Constitution that banned private armies. She issued Executive Order 546 giving local officials and the Philippine National Police or PNP the power to create “force multipliers” in the fight against the MILF. In reality, the Ampatuans converted their private armies to the legal and more elegant euphemism – CVO’s or civilian volunteer organizations.
The military has its own term for members of this private army: Civilian Armed Force Geographical Units or cafgus. These are men who are paid by the local government and trained by the military – all deployed under the command of Ampatuan. Unofficial estimates of the men under Ampatuan’s command reach 800, including cvo’s and cafgus.
Reports of violence, abuses of power, and murder increased through the years, but little was done. People were too afraid to speak. Shortly before the 2001 elections, one of his political rivals was murdered inside a restaurant. Ampatuan was the primary suspect and was even charged, but nothing happened. In another instance, police said the nephew of a rival was killed with a chainsaw. The body was never found. Another rival was burned alive. In every instance, suspicion fell on Ampatuan, who created and exploited a culture of impunity.
This is the story of how the government and its security forces used the Ampatuans and their private armies to fight a proxy war against the MILF, and how it all horrendously backfired.
The question still remains if toppling the Ampatuans will enable the President and her coalition to wash their hands of the whole gruesome mess.
Let’s wait for what’s going to happen next and allow the government to do it’s job. It’s too early to comment on the impact of martial law in Maguindanao.
Forewarned is forearmed!
The Constitution provides that Congress shall convene within 24 hours without need of a call, be it in session or not, after the declaration. If Proc 1959 took effect at 9pm Friday night, why is it, that as of this posting (9:29 pm of Saturday, Dec 5), Congress is not in session? You don’t need Enrile or Nograles to be there for a session to take place!
There is no room for further interpretation. It is a constitutional duty. You can’t procrastinate this for Monday!
This in itself sets a dangerous precedent!
Listen up to all of you citizens of Maguindanao. You should learn from Luzon and Visayas history. Embrace the martial law and bring it another notch: outlaw datus. Strip them of their hereditary titles. It worked for the rest of the Philippines. Look what at what a meritocratic republic did for us sons and daughters of plebs and farmers in Pampanga. We don’t have to defer to morons whose sole claim to authority is being the son of this and that datu. We can get an education, be successful in business, and get respect despite being colonized by the Spanish and Americans. Not like you who are in perpetual poverty because your leaders are datu morons who don’t have experience or knowledge in running a government. Our mayors and governors may be corrupt as yours, but some of them have law degrees, are businessmen, doctors, etc, that is, at least have a college education, so they can get some shit done-like provide us with running water, roads, indoor plumbing, septic tanks, underground sewarage, and most especially rules and regulations-things that small and medium businesses and corporations really like, who in turn give us jobs which gives us monies. Not like you who live on mud roads and have to get by in life by being a body guard of datu this and that.
Political Game
A lot of people maybe thinking that the game being played is checkers (simple, as in honest vs. corrupt, intelligent vs. inexperienced) when the game is actually a game of chess or worse, a game of the generals….
Martial law for most of Maguindanao to quell rebellion EXCEPT in places where the rebels were?
Are we really stupid or what?
Members of Congress already have the constitutional power to end martial law in Maguindanao. from 1987 Constitution Section 18 :
just heard in a newscast: martial law in maguindanao for 60 days or until situation normalizes. but what’s normal for maguindanao?
I am quite sure that the state of martial law will automatically cease after 60 days (per 1987 Constitution). Maguindanao martial law can cease sooner than 60 days (if NoyNoy, Villar, Enrile, your elected congressman and rest of congress convenes and decides to revoke, or if Malacanang lifts the executive order — Christmas); the 1987 constitution states how the martial law can be extended past the 60 days.
I really find this strange if not totally absurd. They say that GMA declared Martial law because Ampatuan’s group of 100 or so are planning to stage a rebellion. Oh yes, GMA declared Martial Law because of the rebellion of 100 or so.
But the NPA with 25,000 armed men have been conducting a rebellion for so many years now, in a wider scale and more devastating mode, yet no president since Marcos declared Martial Law because of them.
MILF and MNLF have tens of thousands of men each armed to their teeth, yet no president push the martial law button because of the trouble they make.
And let us not forget that the Ampatuan, even at this stage, is considered by the Palace as close friend and ally and this could mean that the Ampatuan’s expulsion from the party is nothing but a cosmetic remedy resorted to as damage control and so that there will be minimal harm caused to the candidacy of Gibo of the administration party. A filial and casual tap to the backhead of the Ampatuans would have been the normal course of action and that would have been enough to quell any rebellion they have in their mind. But Martial Law??? GMA got to be kidding.
GMA is even worse than Marcos and she may be experimenting a remake of History. Another Aquino is a strong probability to become a president and it may happen in 7 months, just in the wings waiting for the designated time.
Maguindanao may just be a trial balloon and the rest of the country may be next. Nobody will be on her way anyway. She controls the military, congress and the Supreme Court.
An assassination in the offing? Deferment of the election? Martial Law in the entire country ? I hope GMA will make no mistake. With the internet, text messaging and other modern means of communication within ordinary people’s reach, a REVOLUTION can easily be ignited with one GMA false move.
By fielding a virtual pushover in this presidential election, the administration is apparently NOT taking this election seriously and they may have something else in their mind as a course of action to stay in power.
If the Ampatuan Massacre doesn’t gets solved after this proclamation, then the Palace just used it to cover up a mess that was suddenly discovered and something sinister for the upcoming elections.
Yeah, this has been discussed before.
I’ve speculated what’s a good prelude to martial law would be, something that would scare the shit out of people but not something out of Marcos’ playbook.
I’m not as creative as GMA in thinking of using a massacre as a prelude to martial law.
does the word “moro-moro” sounds familiar?
Also, I think Randy David’s decision not to run against GMA may have been affected by the demonstrated audacity of GMA to sacrifice lives. I don’t for one buy his excuse of familial reason for refusing to run.
He just realized that GMA is mad as fuck and would kill him on a whim, just like that convoy. The massacre opened Randy’s eyes to GMA’s madness.
Manolo, with respect to your theory that a gunpoint power grab will be used by PaLaKa, I apologize for disagreeing. I think your analysis is spot on. This martial law will be used no doubt to confiscate more guns.
i can think of several reasons why martial law was declared in maguindanao but none of them are reasons given by gma’s administration.
Someone encourage the Mangudadatu to file his candidacy. And this someone also encourage the Ampatuans to stop Mangudadatu resulting in the massacre. All along the plan is to declare martial law using the flimsiest of reasons. The same disturbance in Manila would probably encourage GMA to declare martial law in the entire country. I say shoot GMA now before it’s too late.
Why is it that “datus”, given their so called ‘higher class’ are maleducado?
Take for example Datu So and So of the Sultanate of Ewan, he’s not exactly of the same intellectual level as, say, the King of Bhutan.
Mindanao Datus should be outlawed because they are a breed of imbeciles.
And why is “Moro Princess” Loren Legarda suddenly so quiet? As a member of the ‘royal’ family, she should at least be on ground zero helping her subjects.
It was obvious back then – how could a ‘lowly’ mayor AFFORD a mansion, 100 bodyguards, luxury vehicles with no known legitimate source of other income apart from being a “Datu”?
GMA at least is winning. Datu Amputahan seems not keen on playing his trump card of first hand knowledge of electoral cheating. Or maybe there really was no cheating?
So many questions! I say we ‘torture’ Amputahan by feeding him a vegetarian diet (that whole clan looks so porcine) so that answers may come out.
What’s this we hear? Atty Hairy “Always loses by technicality” Roque has issued a press release saying he will file this and that? (Gad, he’s on the same level as Oliver Lozano).
At first, I considered the massacre as an over reach on the part of the Ampatuans. It has turned out to be true. Now the backlash threatens to be a case of over reaction on the part of the government.
But at least the reasonability of the government response can be debated in Congress, unlike the earlier state of rebellion. No doubt the debate will focus on the appropriateness of the force.
It could be seen as a preemptive strike against those who might seek to fill the power vacuum. Alternatively, it could also be seen as an attempt to prevent the Ampatuans from exposing their complicity with their national counterparts in rigging the electoral results of ’04 and ’07.
This is not good. Under martial law anything can happen, even the collection and preservation of evidence, much more the actual prosecution of criminals. We know what happened during the last martial law –nothing was really solved, more crimes were even committed.
How about replay of JPE’s drama, in a bigger and more dramatic scale?
Two good things will come out from GMA’s declaration of Maguindanao martial law. One (and this is alredy known) — Pinas members of congress are not really that much alarmed by martial law. Evidence — while Chiz and others are quick to make pronouncements and media releases, when push comes to shove — no, they will not meet on a week-end. Things can wait.
Second (this one has not been resolved yet) the boundaries of Martial Law declaration gets better-defined. Eventually, Congress or the Supreme Court will decide if the Executive Branch has a wrong interpretation of the Constitution so in 2010 and future years, there will be less errors.
If martial law means increased transparency for Maguindanao it’s probably worth it. But it’s just the military clamping down on one area, limiting information, hiding some thing like who the he’ll gave these people access to guns, then there’s definitlely something wrong here.
For someone under intense pressure to DO SOMETHING about the mass-murder Ampatuan-versus-Mangudadatu//mass-murder of media personnel, GMA has done brilliantly.
Consider this — mass-arrest of the Ampatuans can’t be done swiftly under civilian rules of “…slow justice”. The speed-part can be done under the rules of “martial law”. Even if after the Christmas holidays, Congress revokes martial law, those arrested won’t be immediately released. [Okay, maybe 9 days later, the top five Ampatuans get released to their own cognizance.]
And when those arrested are released, it will be because someone else (not GMA) had acted to have them released.
GMA has taken swift action already — ARRESTS ARE DONE AND DELIVERED. Left to the June2010 president will be the court trials relating to Maguindanao mangudadatu-vs-ampatuan massacre.
GMA can NOT SAY that she is declaring martial law because of the “mangudadatu/media mass murders”.
Very tricky, that 1987 constitution.
Martial law is necessary if you want to put the ampatuans or any reigning warlord to justice. You’re thinking in purely idealistic terms if you’re against Martial Law, which the late Cory Aquino never thought of finally eliminating as a presidential power.
If you could never trust such a president to exercise any of her power, I tell you vigilance is never enough. You should’ve done everything to remove her from power even then. One of our frustrations against te move on crowd. Well, it was all our choice not to have another EDSA back then five years ago, but here we are.
So ngayon “rebellion” ang kaso nang mga amputa, na hindi mananalo sa korte…. tsk tsk tsk
My little piece of advice to the Presidentiables. Do not forget that the little one has a penchant for shooting herself in the foot big time.
She increased the government debt time time prior to the elections of 2004 to guarantee her win. She also made sure of the cheating machine down South that is now coming back to bite her. The horrendous fiscal position now is also a result of her incompetence in governance but brilliance in guaranteeing her hold onto power.
This martial law gambit is no different. One of the first things the new President must do is sign the Rome Treaty. That would put us under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
On the economic front (investment, fiscal and monetary policy) we have placed ourselves already under the aegis of the Breton Woods Institutions.
We should have first put the country under the operational sphere of the International Criminal Court first.
Whatever her plans are we should prepare ourselves for a tough fight. The rats are cornered and they will fight.
For the lawyer readers/commenters.
pag chinarge ba ng rebellion mawawala ang kaso ng multiple murder?
pag hindi,what is the worry if they would be charged of rebellion on top of murder.
nagtatanong lang po.
==============
may isa pa akong tanong sa finile na writ of amparo ng mga ampatuan.
does the writ of habeas data and amparo which is supposed to reinforce habeas corpus be suspended if the you suspend the writ of habeas corpus?
sa susunod gagayahin ko si the cusp na may disclaimer:
The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect that of his employer.
disclosure:
nasabi ko na naman dito na connected ako sa office ni senator biazon.
the views expressed yesterday by the senator lead to my first question.
They could drag the rebellion case for as long as they want…
By pressure you mean dilemma right?
What are the the two choices.
Do nothing or do something.
is it as a dilemma between the devil and the deep blue sea(what ever that means)?
ang sa akin lang kailangan pa bang “ipressure” o pilitin
para kumilos.
About martial law, I have mixed feelings,honestly.
Upn, your comments about martial law may have merit, but I don’t have to agree 100 % because like you said:Different strokes for different folks.
Ramrod,
Ok. justice delayed… justice denied.
so parang dahan dahan bigla dahan dahan
But wait, there’s more… the government hasn’t initiated investigation as to who provided the Ampatuans with guns/ammos. Why haven’t the Ampatuans exposed how Mrs. Arroyo got landslide votes in their area Martial law might be a smokescreen to cover other issues.
The President’s Report to Congress, submitted last night within 48 hours of proclamation:
PGMA Report on Proclamation No. 1959
Seems the House has discovered it has no rules for a joint session to address martial law, so scheduled joint session tomorrow may be imperiled.
are we, the filipino people that gullible that we readily swallowed malacanang’s moro-moro hook, line and sinker? if the answer is yes, then we do really deserve everything, with no one to blame only ourselves.
So who EXACTLY drafted that report.
As shown by Winnie Monsod, the numbers of ‘rebels’ do not add up. It says 2413 rebels on one page…and then on the next it magically becomes 800…and the number of firearms confiscated does not add up to the 2000 oft repeated.
puno and gonzales’ smokescreen slowly lifting and the true picture is unravelling..keep her to misrule us till kingdom come..my dear kabarangay