[av_one_full first min_height=” vertical_alignment=” space=” custom_margin=” margin=’0px’ padding=’0px’ border=” border_color=” radius=’0px’ background_color=” src=” background_position=’top left’ background_repeat=’no-repeat’ animation=”]
[av_heading heading=’ DU30 THE NEW MARCOS? Martial law rally turns anti-Duterte protest ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
[/av_heading]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
Friday. September 22, 2017
[/av_textblock]
[av_textblock size=” font_color=” color=”]
ILOILO City – For activists, the country seems to be under martial law even without a formal declaration from President Rodrigo Duterte.
During a protest yesterday marking the 45th anniversary of martial law, rallyists marched downtown to condemn the spate of extrajudicial killings, militarization of the countryside, human rights violations, corruption, poverty, and joblessness, among others.
All these things happening today were prevalent under the martial law of dictator Ferdinand Marcos four decades ago, said Elmer Forro, secretary general of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Panay and lead convenor of the Movement Against Tyranny.
He urged Ilonggos to be vigilant and resist attempts to curtail human rights.
“The tyrannical tendencies of the Duterte regime must be met with courageous opposition. The Marcos dictatorship fell because of the people’s vigilance,” stressed Forro.
Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972 to supposedly save the country from a creeping communist insurgency.
But what followed, said Forro, were the arrest of those critical of the dictatorship, tortures, enforced disappearances, violations of human rights, and extrajudicial killings.
Martial law victims have yet to attain justice such as the torture survivors, he lamented, adding that families of many desaparecidos are still looking for their vanished loved ones.
“The families of farmers and peasants killed in the mountains of Tapaz, Capiz and Calinog, Iloilo and other parts of Panay Island by martial law forces continue to grieve,” said Forro.
Duterte declared yesterday a “national day of protest.” In Proclamation 319, he described the Marcos-era martial law as a time “attended by the commission of gross human rights violations, arbitrary state interventions, rampant corruption, and disregard of fundamental civil liberties.”
Turning to the Duterte administration, protesters yesterday accused the President of waging war against the Moro people and against progressive groups.
The administration is not serious in the peace talks, said Forro.
“The militarization of the countryside continues. There is an all-out war by the military so there is not much difference in approach from previous administrations,” he observed.
The rallyists also condemned the war against illegal drugs that skirted due process and resulted to the death of over 7,000 people, mostly poor.
“We doubt the sincerity of the government in the campaign against illegal drugs. Why is it downplaying the P6.4-billion smuggled shabu that slipped through Customs inspection undetected? Is it because a presidential son has been dragged to the controversy?” asked Forro.
For as long as the government fails to act on the problems of poverty, unemployment and landlessness, among others, it won’t be able to solve the problem on illegal drugs, he said.
Forro feared that more people, especially the poor, would be killed without due process in the brutal drug war.
“In short, nakita naton ang rehimeng Duterte halos wala sang kinalain sa mga nagliligad nga rehimen,” he stressed.
The President has denied his anti-illegal drugs campaign was only targeting the poor. During the oath-taking of new officers of the Philippine National Police Academy Alumni Association in Malacañang on Sept. 20, he made this city’s mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog as example.
“Sabi nila, where are the big fishes? Binigyan ko na kayo ng mga mayors na big fishes. Itong si Mabilog hindi na nga umuwi eh,” the President said.
Duterte has tagged Mabilog an illegal drug protector and pictured the mayor as affluent and with a palatial house.
The mayor is abroad on sick leave. He denied being involved in illegal drugs either as user, pusher or protector./PN
[/av_textblock]
[/av_one_full]
