Why do Filipino activists complain more about Martial Law than terrorism?

Ask anyone and they will agree that Terrorism directly equates to innocent people’s unnecessary deaths and suffering. So in light of recent days’ events, it is baffling the way certain “activists” screech so loudly about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law. A quick-and-dirty sampling of social media content shows that Martial Law-related tweets easily outnumber tweets about terrorism 20 to one. The outrage over Martial Law is disturbingly disproportionate considering the weakness of its link to death and suffering compared to terrorism.

Indeed, the assertion that Martial Law causes unnecessary death and suffering, remains debatable. Martial Law is three times removed from a causal relationship with death and suffering.

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Firstly, Martial Law in and by itself is not a crime. The Constitution continues to allow its legal implementation.

Second, mere circumstantial evidence links alleged atrocities and abuse committed by police and military personnel to Martial Law itself. Such atrocities and abuse occur whether Martial Law is in effect or not. And if such atrocities are perpetrated while Martial Law happens to be in effect, proving they were done because Martial Law was in effect is impossible. You can prove who committed said atrocities. But proving these people acted because of Martial Law is a futile exercise.

Third, whereas victims of terrorism are generally innocent people who have nothing to do with its perpetrators, no such generalisation could be made about alleged victims of Martial Law. Victims of terrorism are random. Alleged “victims” of Martial Law, on the other hand, are likely to have been involved in something that made them persons of interest to begin with.

Manila Times columnist Bobi Tiglao who, himself, was imprisoned during Martial Law, attests to a common denominator that puts Martial Law “victims” into a defineable non-random set…

There were indisputably human rights violations during Martial Law, even the most despicable ones. Many of my close friends were killed by the military or the constabulary in their mid-twenties. However, I would blame Communist chief Jose Ma. Sison for many of those deaths because he deployed those men who were barely out of their teens to foment unrest and revolt in the countryside, telling them that the masses had been roused to revolution because of Martial Law. They were very poorly armed, and were killed not even by the military but by police and militias who thought they were bandits.

But the way that certain “activists” tweet hysterics over Duterte’s recent declaration of Martial Law over all of Mindanao, it is as if it is certain that death and suffering will follow. They do this even as a far clearer and more present danger to Filipinos — the increasing presence of foreign Islamic terror elements linked to the Islamic State — confronts us. As Bobi Tiglao writes in his Manila Times column, this threat must be swiftly crushed

The obvious huge threat posed by the Islamic State to the Philippines is that as the “World’s Richest Terror Force,” it can channel huge financial resources to IS-Ranao and to other fledgling jihadist groups. Say, $10 million, which is P500 million, would be just a drop in the bucket of the Islamic State’s assets estimated to be at least $3 billion. The Filipino jihadists may in fact have already been receiving such financial help – that it has taken nearly a week for the military to retake Marawi.

It can’t be clearer than this. Rather than be divided over Martial Law, Filipinos should be united against terrorism. That’s not going to happen anytime soon given mostly liberal and left-leaning activists’ preference to milk the old 1970s to 1980s Martial Law narrative instead of be a bit more creative and formulate a new one more in line with the times.

[Photo courtesy News Ok.]

19 Replies to “Why do Filipino activists complain more about Martial Law than terrorism?”

  1. Martial Law was demonized by the mainstream media, after the late Pres. Marcos Sr., was deposed by the U.S./ C.I.A. and the Aquino Cojuangco political axis. It was one way , to entrench themselves , in power…

    They let , NPA Supremo, Jose Ma. Sison, go into exile in the Netherland. Some NPA insurgents were released. Some become part of the government. Up to this day, Marcos Sr. Martial Law is demonized. And, some people, has a Phobia, hearing the word: “Martial Law”…

    There is already a war in Mindanao, against the Maute-ISIS group. They have taken over Marawi City. It is a full blown rebellion…so , Martial Law is needed to defeat the insurgents. They have killed a lot of innocent civilians …

    Human Rights is important; but in times of full blown insurgency. It is not a primary factor. The safety of the people is paramount. The Maute ISIS group does not recognize human rights.

    It is time for unity. Not time to foment disunity, as some political opportunists; Liberal Party; Aquino Cojuangco political axis;Trillanes and his Magdalo clowns, or some foreign mercenary bloggers are doing…

    We will survive this crisis; if we just unite. No matter what religion, political belief , tribe or color you are. We are all Filipinos !

  2. local communism and the islamic terrorism are the creators of martial law. it is a tree spreading its branches with poisonous blooms. we must peeled the bark out of the tree to kill its roots. only then we can say: ‘NEVER AGAIN TO MARTIAL LAW’

  3. MARTIAL LAW in the Philippines, today, has been declared because Rodrigo Duterte does not want to be removed from power. Duterte has been marked for removal by the US Dept. of State. Duterte’s recent meeting with Vladimir Putin is the exact reason that the CIA launched the rebels into action on Mindanao Island. IF ANYONE HERE THINKS IT IS ANYTHING ELSE, you are just a MORON.
    S E Asia, more specifically the Philippines, is USA territory, and is moderately essential to maintaining the Globalist agenda. Duterte is thinking he is going to go jet-setting off to Moscow and make a deal with Putin to modernize his military is going to get him assassinated eventually ,unless he is removed by popular dissent or uprising. The dissent or uprising will be financed by the CIA, (by selling drugs on the streets of the USA and elsewhere), and the final blow to Duterte will resemble something like the Benigno Aquino assassination. UNLESS DUTERTE straightens up, and flies right. and by that is meant: Duterte MUST kneel before the altar of the WEST. There is no other way for Duterte to go, He will be met with fierce resistance at every step and an eventual bullet in his skull will end his idiocies, unless, of course, he stops his shit w/Russia and learns where his place is. BUT IT MAY BE TOO LATE, he may be a dead man walking already. The USA State Dept. is famous for not taking any shit from idiots like Duterte.

  4. and BTW, Marcos did the same exact thing, and got away with for a while, until the USA said “Enough of this shithead already….”. But 2017 is much different from the world of 1972 and things happen much more quickly. I’m thinking Duterte has two years, TOPS, to stop his shit w/Russia and get back to being the CIA/US Dept. of State’s PUPPY in S E Asia, or he gets whacked…..it is as simple as that.

    1. president duterte if he wins his fight for a better phlippines, he will become another hero after marcos. no doubt about it.

  5. Just a guess, but maybe people are upset because declaration of Martial Law is an admission that (a) the country has no functioning Civil Law system, and indeed has not had one in living memory and (b) the Police are useless, so the last resort is the Army, God help us.

    WTF: yeah, but no. Nobody cares about the Philippines. Once upon a time the place might have been moderately useful from a strategic point of view. Not any more. The cold war is over and the US and China are BFFs now … at least in theory. So overt military posturing in Asia is not on the agenda at the moment.

    You might remember the US voluntarily shut down most (all?) of it’s military operations here in the 90s. This was, of course, shortly after the country’s own army had failed to deal with a small gaggle of rebels who were about to topple the government, and the US had to send a few spare soldiers to do what the entire AFP couldn’t manage. They were then summarily kicked out (or rather, held over a barrel for more rent). Welcome to the Philippines! Give me money!

    The US decided the Philippines was becoming more of a liability than an asset, and decided to just walk away. Which in retrospect was probably a smart move; the last thing the US wants is to have to pick sides in a game of shit-flinging.

  6. @WTF

    Oh here’s another possible Noytard and American puppet again in action huh? So here’s what… is martial law declared for the whole Philippines or just Marawi? I hope you can solve the problem in Marawi yourself.

  7. @WTF:

    Pres. Bashar Al Assad of Syria is still there. Kim Jung Un of North Korea is showing his missile capabilities. Inspite of the fleet of U.S. warships on the Sea of Japan. The Ayatollah of Iran, was paid in Euro cold cash by Obama, in billions of Euros, in the dead of the night…

    The U.S. is not as powerful, as you are portraying it…it lost the war in Vietnam. It is still on war in Afghanistan and Iraq. Osama Bin Laden was taking refuge in Pakistan, a U.S. ally; when he was killed by U.S. Navy Seals…

    I don’t believe the U.S. wants to create more problems, that it can handle. Unless, it wants to commit, National Suicide !

  8. Had anyone who’d watched a controversial animated video coming from PCOO (Philippine Communication Office) about the Martial Law and later they’d pulled out from their official website because there are many complains coming from anti-Martial Law Filipinos who’d offended on that video? Well, this is the best example why some of us don’t care if our country will be destroyed by foreign invaders coming from those terrorists like ISIS, JI, etc. and Martial Law is still a national nightmare. Oh hell, kaya pala hindi talaga tayo uunlad at lumala pa ang CRAB MENTALITY natin dito sa ating bansa imbes na magbago at magkonsyensya tayo kung paano tayo umunlad para sa ating bansa. 🙁

  9. Duterte’s morality is rock-bottom. Aside from his controversies, the scary events that are happening lately in this country is orchestrated by Ramos, that is of course a theory I’ve heard but look back and you’ll see how traitorous Ramos is.

  10. Guest: it makes me laugh how people continue to elect crooks and traitors – I mean people who have actually betrayed their country in the past – into positions of power so that they can continue to cheat, steal and play the Game of Thrones. Duterte is the president they deserve.

  11. if Duterte is removed by popular uprising, all of this will stop….its a guarantee. Duterte has pissed off the US State Dept./CIA and they are coming for his ass. Explosions in Manila will continue, the Muslim threat will get worse…and Filipino’s who have nothing to do with any of it, will die un-necessarily, because Rodrigo Duterte can not figure out he is not in charge of what his military buys or who it buys it from…simple as that.

    Filipino’s are soo stupid they let this guy kill their fellow-citizens without a trial, they cheer for this idiot while he murders his own citizens for selling a fake drug (cough medicine boiled in nail polish is not Desoxy-Ephedrine)and he does it by throwing the countries constitution under-the-bus….and idiotic Flipino’s cheer for the moron. I could never make this shit up, its beyond fuckin retarded. The victims would be put on probation or maybe get a year or two in jail, not a death sentence in any civilized country, but that is AFTER they get the benefit of a trial. To make it even worse,Duterte targets street-level drug seller’s and not the people making the HUGE PROFIT$$$ from the sale of the fake drugs, the Chinese Triad Mafia and the Senators/Congressman and probably Duterte himself but Duterte might be too stupid to figure out that the ‘presents’ he gets is laundered drug money, that is how fuckin dumb Duterte is.

  12. hahahaha, they’re throwing to president duterte what they did to marcos, killing communist insurgents who wants to take over a motherland is killing innocent civilians. pilipinos is all out behind president duterte and whatever he does is the right way. we see a prosperous philippines to come.

  13. The flaw in being civilized is that it permit’s the uncivilized among us to perpetrate horrific crimes against us in the name of freedom and equality.

  14. LOOK, Dutertre will NEVER be allowed to align the Philippines with Russia, or build up his Military with Russian support. When Duterte stops doing his dealings with Moscow, all this terrorist nonsense will stop. The explosions in Manila etc etc…would do you think is behind all of this? AND, more importantly, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
    THE USA/CIA/US DEPT. OF STATE doesn’t care what the Political Dynaties of the Philippines do to their citizens, but the second the leader of the country cozies up to Russia, THAT IS IT !!! Duterte, or whoever the leader is that cozies up to Russia/China, starts experiencing all sorts of problems within the country…..FIGURE IT OUT YET ? HELLO ???? This is NOT ROCKET SCIENC E !!!!

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