President Rodrigo Duterte is at it again, threatening to impose martial law if only to, according to his words, save the country from the illegal drug menace that he claimed had ravaged the Filipino youth and endangered their future.
In at least two separate public gatherings, the President augmented his usual fire and brimstone speech on illegal drugs by warning that he can impose martial law even if it was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.
We are seeing quite a disturbing pattern in the President’s speeches and it’s not just about the cuss words which is part of his vocabulary. It’s his propensity to dangle the specter of martial law like the proverbial Damocles sword over the heads of his critics.
This time, his target was the Catholic Church whom he accused of being hypocrites for criticizing anew his war on drugs and his administration’s seeming tolerance of extrajudicial killings of drug suspects.
That he sent a letter of apology delivered by his envoy to Pope Francis at the time he issued his harangue at the Church is no small coincidence. But Mr. Duterte laced his martial law rattling with a hypothetical scenario involving Congress and the Supreme Court.
If the High Court ruled against him but Congress which is populated with his allies supported him, how would he break the impasse, he asked. Of course, he will break it by declaring martial law.
The seeds are being planted to create the conditions that would as per assessment of the President justify the declaration of martial law even if the President’s Solicitor General Jose Calida said it can only be done under extreme conditions.
One such seed is the Philippine National Police’s capability to order the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to require telecom firms to shut down cell sites on the pretext of preventing a terrorist attack.
Just imagine all cell sites being shut down without prior notice from the NTC based on a PNP order. That scenario had been suggested by the President, who told police officials during a gathering that he won’t make a public declaration of martial law but would just quietly issue an order to law enforcement agencies to implement it.
There is a reason why there are restrictions placed in the declaration of martial law, and while President Duterte recognizes these limits, he has no qualms of going around it for several reasons, among them his confidence that his allies in Congress will back him up even if half-heartedly so.
No one is challenging the President’s authority to declare martial law save for his fiercest critics but someone should question why he continue to dangle and brandish the sword that is martial law to intimidate and browbeat anyone who dares object to his policies and programs even on legitimate grounds.