You don’t plant a separatist flag, open fire on government troops, behead people, occupy parts of a city and expect to get away with it.
It is called rebellion, plain and simple. The threat to the state is clear and present danger. This is the reason behind the declaration of Martial Law under Duterte.
Not on my watch you don’t, he was saying.
In contrast, the ML declaration of 1972 was a clear power grab, despite what Marcos was saying: “This is to save the Republic and to stop rebellion.”
I recalled the words vividly. With one stroke of the pen, he closed print and broadcast establishments. Duterte did neither so as sure as the cock crows tomorrow, you will get to see a copy of this paper. There is freedom of the press unlike in the 1970s.
A few radio establishments from 1972 upwards were allowed to go back on the air but much of the news was government. The few newspapers that resumed printing had to toe the line. Curfew was imposed.
No such thing under Duterte at least in Davao City.
When the Manila Bulletin resumed printing a few years after ML, it was renamed “Bulletin Today.” The feisty George Jularbal who learned how to write about golf from the caddies of Camp John Hay said the editors meant it that way. Who knows it might not come out tomorrow!
With no internet then, no one was sure what was happening with the outside world. Information was gagged or filtered to ensure none was subversive.
The official line: “Sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan, Disciplina ang Kailangan.”
But when radio commentator Orly Mercado, blurted out on radio ‘Sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan, Bisiklita ang Kailangan, ’he was promptly hauled to an army camp.
The grapevine says he was made to ride the bike round the camp. You can criticize Martial Law under Duterte for all you care but for so long as you don’t espouse rebellion, it is okay.
In a political science class back then, I took issue with the book “Today’s Revolution: Democracy” by the martial law architect himself, Ferdinand E. Marcos. Tried as I did, it had none to appeal to my simple understanding of politics and government. So I voiced my opinions loudly.
One day, no less than the provincial commander of Camp Holmes (now Camp Bado Dangwa) showed up and had me hauled to a collection of makeshift tents covered with canvas and enclosed by a fence at the camp grounds itself.
It was more than half-filled with detainees when I arrived.
There, I played scrabble with the publisher-lawyer Sinai C. Hamada and some people from the academe.
In the end my captors decided I was too young to be a hard core and let me out. I wanted to be a lawyer but poverty intervened.
It was this that lured me to journalism, while studying, on and off.
I owe my journalism basics to my English teacher in high school, Prof. Rodolfo T. Abastilla. This teacher who dabbled in short stories tutored me from my sophomore to my senior years till I could write news like a pro. He also named me editor of the high school paper Mt. Breeze, citing Primitivo Mijares as one of its previous editors.
Mijares worked himself up the Marcos government during the Martial Law years but then fled to the US. .
He wrote the book, ‘The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos.’ The subsequent death of Mijares was a mystery to this day.
Journalism led me here and there, like a rolling stone, from Baguio to Davao, South Cotabato, Manila, Pangasinan to Baguio and back.
The human rights abuses attributed to security forces were what left a bad taste in the mouth. In the end, absolute power collapsed and the ignominy of being vilified even after this death continued to follow Marcos his grave.
Marcos never got to bring the country to the Holy Land of prosperity. On the contrary, feudal conditions and underdevelopment continued to run roughshod over much of the countryside to this day.
Martial Law under Duterte is a different animal all together. Of course, it is too early in the day but for now, the presses are running and there is nothing wrong with how news is presented in both print and broadcast. It is an interesting time to be with.
