It would likely take some time before the Supreme Court rules on the petitions filed against President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao, but already, there are some indications that it may eventually be lifted unless a last-minute major upheaval occurs that will render it moot.
About 90 percent of Marawi City had been cleared of the Maute terrorists, and the remaining number is holed up away from the city proper where they can still inflict damage and fear among the populace.
All this had been done amid the backdrop of martial law where the military and police still managed to arrest suspected Maute members who may be escaping from the conflict zone of Marawi City and/or being told by their masters to head to other areas to sow violence and terror in order to thin out the troops.
Thus, the arrest of a suspected Maute bomber in Cagayan de Oro City and those suspected to be Maute terrorists at the Iloilo City port who were said to have come from Cagayan de Oro City and were heading to Manila, the country’s capital.
In Cebu City, the police secured the Pasil fish port despite the absence of sightings of Maute terrorists since the port is not part of the coverage of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA).
Still, these arrests have shown that the Maute terrorists can mask their presence and blend in with the crowd, making detection difficult until — God forbid — it’s too late.
We need reminding that were it not for the vigilance of residents of Inabanga town, Bohol province, we would not have detected the arrival of the Abu Sayyaf bandits there.
Again, if the bandits were not detected earlier, imagine the terror and violence they would have inflicted and how it would have exposed Central Visayas further to terrorist violence with the arrival of the Maute terrorists in Marawi City, who can tie up with the Abu Sayyaf in order to enter the region and expand their presence there.
All this was done without having martial law declared, so would it be possible for the government to contain the terrorist threat without having to declare martial law in Mindanao?
Who knows for certain because — again — even with martial law, several suspected Maute members managed to make their way through cities that are far from the conflict area and were only stopped by checkpoints.
Those who filed the petition against the martial law declaration are justifiably fearful of a repeat of the martial law regime of the late president Ferdinand Marcos even if the current martial law declaration has not yet yielded any cases of abuses against citizens.
In ruling for or against the martial law declaration, the Supreme Court should carefully assess not just the situation on the ground but also the possibility that its exercise can be taken and acted on arbitrarily and unilaterally by the Duterte administration.