If there is anything that can be gleaned from the way Filipinos have so far responded to the crisis in Marawi, it is that Filipinos remain their own worst enemy. Rather than see the terrorists linked to the Islamic State overrunning Marawi City as the bigger enemy, many have, instead, lashed out at the more familiar bogeyman: Martial Law.
It is no surprise that those who were quick to slam Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao were the usual latte-sipping armchair experts tapping away tweets from their iPads in Imperial Manila’s tony coffee shops. To be fair, for most citizens of the Philippines’ imperial capital, the “scars” of Martial Law are more familiar than the scars left on Mindanao by decades of unacknowledged Islamic terrorism. To these Millennials of Manila, Mindanao’s issues are a distant footnote in their more pressing Manila-centric social media vendettas. Indeed, now that this terrorism is staring Manila’s chattering classes right in their faces, rather than confront this reality, they sidestep its core facts and, instead, insist that terrorism is “not about religion”.
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Opt into a paid subscription and you'll get premium insider briefs and insights from us. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
The thing with being unwilling to confront reality is that one’s sloganeering degrades into a laughable inconsistency that steadily erodes credibility. Take this tweet fielded by a certain Chiara Zambrano who seemingly attempts to inject some hipster sense into the nonsensical events unfolding in Mindanao…
Some Muslims have locked Christian friends in secret rooms, some help them memorize Muslim prayers to save them in case they are captured
So much for this terrorism being “not about religion”.
It seems that Manila’s social media “activists” live in fear of their hipster rhetoric being cracked wide open by the new history unfolding today. The notion that Martial Law should #NeverAgain happen, is one such sacred cow — virtual scripture in their eyes. And yet here it is, happening again. It is happening again, yes, but not happening all over again. A whole world of difference sits between Twenty First Century Philippines and the early 1970s Philippines and, as such, this Martial Law is nothing like the pet childhood Marcosian nightmare that today’s hipsters continue to be crybabies about.
Nonetheless, they run around shrieking about the “return” of Martial Law and monger fears that the edifice of “human rights” they “fought” for is under threat; leaving one to ask: But what about that other more real enemy: Islamic terrorism?
There is something baffling about Filipino-Manilenos’ inability to come to terms with the reality of Islamic terrorism. Is it because Mindanao, to them, is just a place too far beyond their backyards and its people too much of mere abstractions to reckon with? Would they rather we err on the side of “human rights” than on the side of a decisive military victory against an abominable barbaric force?
This is an opportune time for Imperial Manila’s “activists” to see a shrink about their irrational fear of the ol’ Martial Law bogeyman that continues to haunt their rhetoric. Perhaps, then, they could focus on the task of elevating the Philippines’ national “debate” into one truly underpinned by intelligent discourse.
[Photo courtesy Long War Journal.]
benign0 is the Webmaster of GetRealPhilippines.com.
i totally agree with president duterte what marcos did in declaring martial law is the right thing to do that martial law is the enemy of communism and terrorism who wants to take over the entire Philippines. the Philippines should be better than singapore by now if not for that greed for luisita. martial law is the Motherland’s weapon against lawlessness. ninoy started all these mess.
@salagintong bukid:
“what you’ve just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.”
– The Principal, “Billy Madison”
@Marius
So Marius, tell us, what in your bright mind is the best way to fight terrorism?
Pilipinos are already awaken even before the last presidential elections.. their real enemy is the yellow’s 87 Constitution.
Aphetsky Lasa: I was referring to s.b.’s characteristic rambling post. As long as he gets the keywords ‘yellow’ and ‘luisita’ in there somewhere, he doesn’t care if his rants make any logical sense. Anyway, read FallenAngel’s latest post. He answers your question.
Basically, you’re asking the wrong question. You can’t “fight terrorism”. The Americans have been doing that for as long as I can remember. They’ve been fighting drugs too. See any success there? With all the resources they have to throw at the problem? You seriously think Filipinos are going to be any more successful?
The best way to fix most problems is to make sure the problem doesn’t happen in the first place. The country has terrorists because it deliberately cultivates dissatisfaction, powerlessness, and low-level rage. Even I feel it, and I’m a pretty calm guy most of the time. Every simple interaction with Filipinos is “what the hell is all this about? Why is this so DAMN HARD?”. Is it really any surprise to you that most of your countrymen either give up, or pick up a gun?
Of course, you DO have the problem, here and now, and in theory you probably could mop up the hardcore terrorists with a short military campaign. In theory. But it’s like cockroaches or rats: you kill one, and a whole family of them will move in to fill the vacated space. To truly win the battle, you have to remove the reason the cockroaches, rats, or terrorists are there in the first place.
If you want an actual recipe, I would suggest:
a) Call in the Malaysians, or the Belgians, or some other competent army to get rid of the “revolutionaries”. They are, as FallenAngel said, just a bunch of criminals, and should be fairly easy to deal with. I know some guys in the army, and they’re decent men, but 80% of the others are incompetent, ill-equipped, or just horrible people who will harm themselves and others if allowed to.
b) Fire everyone in the BIR, the BOC, the DOJ, and DOE and invite technocrats from Singapore to run all four departments. Give them carte blanche to burn all the stupid rulebooks, and start again, with a nice simple system that the ordinary man in the street can understand. This has been done before. I can’t remember which African country it was, but in order to fight corruption in Customs, they just fired all the local employees and hired Swiss people.
c) Draft in an army of Finnish, German and Dutch teachers to volunteer in public schools, with no payment except accommodation and food. Fire all the Filipino teachers. They will be re-trained and then re-hired when they prove their aptitude (and honesty). In ten years time you will have several million well-behaved, intelligent, free-thinking teenagers ready to enter the workforce.
In other words, recognize that the problem is not some external force: it’s Filipinos. Put down your pride, accept that the country has hit rock bottom, and ask for help from people who can and will help you. When the problem is fixed, and you’ve learned the skills to actually run a country, you can say “thank you very much, now go away”. And the foreigners will happily do so.
If you don’t like that idea, I’m afraid the alternative is going to be civil war, followed by an invasion by whichever neighbor gets sick of you shooting at each other.
Unfortunately, I think I know which option the Filipino prefers.
The Americans have not really tried to fight terrorism; that’s what the media wants people to believe.
A certain Filipino retired General,who served in Mindanao for a long time; has stated that, Trillanes and his Magdalo Group; are affiliated to that Maute Group, that attacked Marawi City. HIs reasons are:
(1) Muslims respect the Ramadam. No Muslim will do war, in observance of Ramadam…
(2) It was timed during the visit of Pres. Duterte, to Moscow, Russia. This attack was to embarrass Pres. Duterte, in the international world.
(3) The Magdalo Partylist was the source of Arms and ammunition supplies of the Maute Group.
I think, there is a sense of what the retired General’s observations. Trillanes is the running dog of the Aquino Cojuangco political axis. They are the people who want to destabilize the administration of Pres. Duterte.
They cannot do it by impeachment. So, they try to do it by sowing chaos and trouble in Mindanao. The rest of the country will follow…
I don’t know if the U.S. /C.I.A. that are hold outs; and allied to Hilary Clinton; and Obama; is involved… they may have a hand on this matter….they don’t want us to have good relations with Russia, and Pres. Vladimir Putin…
If you observe this GRP website. There are American foreigners, who are mercenary bloggers; shouting to us, the dangerS of Martial Law. And,to take down the administration of Pres. Duterte.
The same demonizing tactic ,is now done by these American foreign mercenary bloggers to the late Pres. Marcos, Sr.; is now being done to Pres. Duterte …
It is a dangerous political game these people are playing; at the expense of Filipino lives and the country….just to promote their political and personal agendas….
I urge everyone ; every Filipino, who love their country, to Fight Back !
@Marius
“Call in the Malaysians, or the Belgians, or some other competent army to get rid of the “revolutionaries”.”
What kind of suggestion is this? You want to invite another army to fight here? So much for being a sovereign state.
You know, in International Relations, the first duty of a country to the broader community of nations is to “get its shit together.” You don’t do that by running to other countries and begging them for aid.
We need ultranationalism and conservatism to fight back terrorism and rebel (like ISIS, NPA) because of yellows. Meanwhile, Trump admin in the USA has to deport ISIS-infested migrants/immigrants that came from Middle-East countries.
To make sure that Martial Law will be paradise. To get rid of the revolutionaries, we need ultranationalism and conservatism, if not capitalism.
>> The first duty of a country to the broader community of nations is to “get its shit together.” You don’t do that by running to other countries and begging them for aid.
Here’s the problem. Filipinos have been trying, and failing, to get their shit together for 400 years. How much longer do they need to realise that it just isn’t working? How much more suffering needs to be inflicted on the ordinary people just so that a few rich and powerful Filipinos can pretend they’re in charge?
There is no shame in asking for help. Proper countries help each other all the time. The Filipino is so puffed-up with his pride, despite proving over and over again that he’s incapable of doing the simplest things, that he’d rather die than admit that he needs assistance.
@Marius,
“b) Fire everyone in the BIR, the BOC, the DOJ, and DOE and invite technocrats from Singapore to run all four departments. Give them carte blanche to burn all the stupid rulebooks, and start again, with a nice simple system that the ordinary man in the street can understand. This has been done before. I can’t remember which African country it was, but in order to fight corruption in Customs, they just fired all the local employees and hired Swiss people.”
Yet… the alternative way is that we want self-reliance, and autarky meant for (ultra)nationalism is that OFWS must leave the country, should they be branded defectors, millions of them, compared to tens of thousands of North Korean defectors across the globe. In order to burn, ban and rid all the stupid rulebooks and replace it with such ideology to legitimize the regime. The economy will be as slow even if it has become autarky and self-reliance.
PRRD’s decalaration of Martial Law is justified. if im the president i would have done the same. Martial Law is in the constitution. hence, PRRD is working under the 1987 Constitution.
ARTICLE VII
Executive Department
SECTION 18. The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary, he may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion. In case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it, he may, for a period not exceeding sixty days, suspend the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus or place the Philippines or any part thereof under martial law. Within forty-eight hours from the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus, the President shall submit a report in person or in writing to the Congress. The Congress, voting jointly, by a vote of at least a majority of all its Members in regular or special session, may revoke such proclamation or suspension, which revocation shall not be set aside by the President. Upon the initiative of the President, the Congress may, in the same manner, extend such proclamation or suspension for a period to be determined by the Congress, if the invasion or rebellion shall persist and public safety requires it.
The Congress, if not in session, shall, within twenty-four hours following such proclamation or suspension, convene in accordance with its rules without any need of a call.
The Supreme Court may review, in an appropriate proceeding filed by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ or the extension thereof, and must promulgate its decision thereon within thirty days from its filing.
A state of martial law does not suspend the operation of the Constitution, nor supplant the functioning of the civil courts or legislative assemblies, nor authorize the conferment of jurisdiction on military courts and agencies over civilians where civil courts are able to function, nor automatically suspend the privilege of the writ.
The suspension of the privilege of the writ shall apply only to persons judicially charged for rebellion or offenses inherent in or directly connected with the invasion.
During the suspension of the privilege of the writ, any person thus arrested or detained shall be judicially charged within three days, otherwise he shall be released.
= – – – – =
if the Crybabies don’t like Martial Law, they should ask / order the law-makers to remove it in the constitution. oh this 1987 Constitution is signed by that b!tch of a wife Cory Aquino.
@Propaganda boy: I have no idea what you said there.
Frankly, I think you just proved my point: we need to fire all the teachers and replace them with competent foreigners.
Just look at the incoherent rubbish being posted by Filipinos here: Hyden Toro can’t spell or punctuate; salagintong bukid just rambles on about hacienda luisita as if that’s the whole of the country; you seem to be posting random sentences with no apparent logical connection between them.
I know what goes on in your schools. Lazy, dishonest, stupid teachers teaching young kids to be lazy, dishonest and stupid. How is ‘ultranationalism’ going to solve anything when 80% of the population can’t formulate sensible ideas? How are you going to be ‘self-reliant’ when Filipinos aren’t allowed to build businesses, and are rewarded for cheating and lying to each other?
“Frankly, I think you just proved my point: we need to fire all the teachers and replace them with competent foreigners.
“Just look at the incoherent rubbish being posted by Filipinos here: Hyden Toro can’t spell or punctuate; salagintong bukid just rambles on…”
It seems an expert from an Imperial Uknown Country is on the loose…
@Propaganda Boy,
I, Propaganda Boy, must have mistaken a typo.
In order to burn, ban and rid all the stupid rulebooks and replace it with such ideology to legitimize the Marcos regime, and to have self-reliance, nationalism and conservatism if not ultranationalism.
Boom Bye: Get over yourselves already. There isn’t a country on this planet that hasn’t been colonized at some point. This is nothing to do with imperialism.
You’ll notice I suggested asking the Malaysian army to help, not (say) the Americans. Malaysia is culturally similar to the Philippines and has a vested interest in seeing the country succeed. They also happen to have a very professional and well-equipped army. They could probably solve your “terrorist” problem in a month. Of course they would expect something in return – trade deals, perhaps – but what’s wrong with that?
As for the country’s disastrous education system: you, again, have proved my point by failing to present any logical argument against my proposal, preferring instead to use the old Filipino standby: call “racism!” and add a vague threat of violence (“boom, bye”).
But… in order to fire all teachers who make yellow propaganda against marcos in history books to have military soldiers as the teacher to legitimize Marcos History or Kim history or Hitler history not to look bad… I don’t know why it will be.
imperial manila is so dumb and indifferent simply because it is unaffected.
i meant MOST of imperial manila
All your posts here just prove what benign0 was actually trying to say.
My suggestion…. all you Manila armchair commandos just shut the fuck up and let Duterte and the AFP do their job, by hopefully killing all these fuckers.
Then afterwards maybe have a discussion about what has happened down south.
I lived in Bukidnon on Mindanao for 3 years and the people there have no dea why Marcos was deposed. He was deposed by Manila, not by The Philippines and that disconnect is being amplified now.
why is the political axis of the yellow dynasty against the declaration of ML in mindanao? it is clear the maute terrorist stage a siege in marawi. they want to take mindanao by force. is it because the BBL failed? is it they’re protecting the maute group? ahh i know, it’s all because of hacienda luisita they fight for it and they will die for it. that’s the roots of all these mess by the aquino-cojuangco clan. since the farmers breaks the walls at luisita, remember, chaos started. they failed to steal the farmer’s land.
>> hacienda luisita
aaaaand there we go again.
Come on. Do you seriously think the ruling classes care THAT much about a village-sized bit of farmland? Obviously I need to spell this out to you, because you don’t get it: THEY OWN THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. It is theirs to do with as they please, as are the people in it.
They don’t need to steal farmers’ land. The farmers are happy to give it away to rich people for P20K/hectare. Those “farmers” have neither the knowledge nor the motivation to actually farm the land that was granted to them by CARP. Even if they did, they know their profits would be taken from them. They’d rather swap that land for Red Horse and KTV. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow the army will rape your daughter and put a bullet through your head.
As for the “rebel” groups, I suppose they might be a useful distraction; your masters can use them to keep the unwashed masses on their knees crying, “oh, won’t you please help us?”. But if you think your leaders have minds as small as yours, you’re badly mistaken. They might be bad people, but they’re not entirely stupid.
….and what do you think they’re fighting for? it’s worth dying for. you know nothing. you might not have been born yet during martial law. ask the oldies they’re still alive some of them…erap, enrile, ramos, pimentel, president duterte, etc. eta rosales is an activist during that time of martial law and she join the NPA’s as an amazon. she was capture twice and detained in a military camp in isabela. she is the daughter of a military officer that’s why she was released the first time she was captured. but she join her command again afterwards in the mountains. no one can steal luisita because that land belongs to the farmers. there’s a curse on that. chaos in the philippines will continue unless luisita is distributed to the farmers with genuine land titles. it is a agricultural land, it cannot be sold or converted to anything. the farmers were fooled again and again. ex justice corona’s decision is the right thing to do. you better know your history starting 1957 to present boy the sale of the luisita by people’s money.
these yellowtards knows nothing but to twist their own 87 constitution suppose tobe their protector. but this time it comes out that they’re the enemy of their constitution. it backfires on them….hahaha
What happens when a certain narrative that tells people should fear gov’t actions more than the terrorism itself? Both govt and people become inutile. Filipinos should quit self-defeating attitudes and start acting more productively. ISIS terrorism is now at our country’s doorstep.
are these hostages real hostages or maute supporters to get them out of marawi? where would they house a 240 hostages? if they (hostages) will be killed for their motherland, they will be heroes. it’s now or never for peace. don’t let them get away.
the 87 constitution clearly says, you can only convene in a joint session after 60 days upon declaring martial law to revoke or extend martial law if necessary. within 60 days it’s untouchable. why is the yellows scared of martial law? do they have plans to take siege of metro manila too? distribute luisita it’s the roots of all these problems. end their fight for luisita.
Only Marius is the one talking sense out of this sad sack that is the comments section. Ultranationalism as the solution? Really, because countries like Laos and Burma are doing really great with their own insurgency problems by having their people drink the proverbial kool-aid yeah.
The object of terrorism is terrorism. The object of oppression is oppression. The object of torture is torture. The object of murder is murder. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?
@Forte:
another ‘tau-tsu wa” of mercenary bloggers. Paid by the U.S./C.I.A. (Clinton-Obama Holdouts), to try to deceive the Filipinos. They are also paid by the Aquino Cojuangco political axis, as mercenary bloggers and trolls.
You can see how they compliment mutually each other. Hoy, mga kumag…lumang tugtugin na yan tactic ninyo !
Forte: Thanks. To be honest, I’ve mostly lost interest in trying to hold rational discussions with the posters here; lately, I’m really just trolling (which probably isn’t good for my karma) because nobody here is interested in actual debate. It’s all bizarre crap about CIA conspiracies.
d_forsaken: you don’t ever seem to post anything except quotes, but that’s a good one. Filipinos should read Orwell’s 1984 if they want to truly understand what their country is … and perchance understand themselves.
@Marius :
Ikaw ay isa sa mga binayaran ng U.S./C.I.A disinformation operative (mercenary bloggers), Hilary Clinton Obama holdouts…binayaran ka rin ng Aquino Cojuangco poltical axis, parang linglingin ang mga Pilipino…
Pinupuri nila ang kanilang sarili…at hindi sila marunogn magsulat ng Pilipino ! Gising mga kababayan !
That’s right, Hyden. It’s all the fault of the CIA, or Donald Trump, or Aliens. You carry on believing that, then you don’t have to look at the state of your own soul.
Do you know, Hyden, why Pride (in the Catholic tradition) is one of the Seven Deadly Sins? Do you know why it’s called “the father of all sins?”. It’s because Pride prevents you from seeing yourself as you are, and it prevents you from seeing other people as they are.
If you are a bad person, you will never know it if you have Pride. If others are doing better than you, because they have better solutions to life’s problems, you’ll never be able to succeed as they have. Your Pride blinds you. You’ll dismiss other people as irrelevant, as (for example) Duterte dismissed the advice of the ex-president of Columbia regarding drug wars. He’s walked this path before and failed. What makes Filipinos think they’ll succeed where he failed? Pride.
Look at you all here, blustering about torturing the terrorists. You’re as bad as they are! Filipinos are always killing each other for no particular reason. You go through life looking for the lose-lose solution: you don’t care how badly you hurt yourselves as long as you hurt the other guy more. The terrorists are YOU. They are an inevitable product of Filipino society, which takes Pride as a virtue instead of what it is: the worst of all sins.
And if you hadn’t noticed, GRP uses English as it’s primary language, presumably to reach a wider audience.
Sabah and its ramifications may surprise or even shock some, for
it became the bombshell that pitted Marcos and the Liberal Party. It
was also a fodder for the insatiable ambition of Ninoy Aquino in his
quest for the presidency. Aquino supported the
rebellion in Mindanao against the government, a patent treason he also did when he made contact and even encouraged the CPP-NPA. He
was willing to surrender Sabah to court Malaysia on his fight against
Marcos. Marcos and Aquino were made for each other; the former,
in his lust for power, wanted to protect the status quo from the latter,
who wanted it wrested through violent means because of his ambition
to lead the country. Can we say Marcos is more patriotic than Aquino,
or was Ninoy more heroic than Macoy? In light of these, is Ninoy
really a hero? All these were happening in the midst of
Moro secessionism and communist insurgency, two movements that
Ninoy has dipped his hands into. the Liberal Party had a bigger
role than Rashid Lucman’s in the creation of a Moro rebellion. Malaysians in collusion with Lucman succeeded in 1970 of
training not 10,000 warriors but 28,000 insurgents, ready to do battle
against the AFP. Aquino welcomed
them at Malabang, Lanao del Sur; they were called “Top 90,” the first batch that would train their fellow rebels. Lucmans and
Aquinos were old political allies; the former was a founding member
of the Liberal Party. the relationship between Lucman and Aquino
became close after the Corregidor incident.
Why would
Aquino, a government official, greet the soon-to-be rebels against the
government he was sworn to serve?
Du30 has no choice aside martial law.
Now 2 month his army getting ridiculous in front of 2 to 300 fighters…
The army is incompetent, the police is incompetent and corrupt, politician are incompetent and corrupt and the Filipinos are brainless, uneducated, selfish…
So the more of them are dying the best it is…
Typical Manila Imperialist hipsters starter pack:
*”NeverAgain to Martial Law”, “No To Marcos”, “Oust Duterte”, “T***ina mo Duterte/Marcos” ang bukambibig , Pro Aquino/Yellow
*Expect a picture of Dua Lipa in their twitter accts., selfie lord, laging nasa SB
*Naka iPhone, pinaka luma na ang iPhone 7
*Mayaman magulang, hinge pera lagi sa magulang, walwal
*May driver, bago sasakyan, may sariling sasakyan na bili ng magulang
*Studies in the Big 4 Universities
*May nakatagong malaswang image/”nudes” kasma ang bf nila (syempre sila lang nakakaalam nyan/sa sarili nila, syempre di naman aamin yan)
😀