Fancy word ‘revisionism’
We should be thankful that martial law was declared, or Mr. Jose Maria Sison would have taken over the government.
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Daily TribuneWe should be thankful that martial law was declared, or Mr. Jose Maria Sison would have taken over the government.
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Were there widespread abuses during the martial law years spanning 21 September 1972 to 17 January 1981, or nine years under President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.?
Certain groups consider the narrative of the period being the dark ages of civil rights as sacrosanct and should never be challenged. Anything different from their storyline would be revisionism.
These are the hypocrites who consider themselves as having the divine appointment to decide what is best for the country after the 1986 EDSA revolt.
"I am ready to debate with anyone, and it is my duty to explain to the people," Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, who was the martial law administrator, said on the necessity of the controversial 1972 imposition.
The situation then called for the declaration of powers to address an extraordinary threat to the nation.
Everything was done according to the provisions of the 1935 Constitution, stressed Enrile on his weekly morning show "Bayan ni Juan."
"I was ordered by then — President Marcos Sr., who was acting under the commander-in-chief provision of the law, to study what was contained in the Constitution on the powers of the President," he said.
He pointed out that martial law covering the entire country was necessary at that particular period.
Our country, not only today but in the future, is guaranteed always to be stable.
"The time will come when there will again be a need to impose martial, and it will be the people who would clamor for it, I'm telling you," he predicted.
Enrile said that all forms of government leave something to be desired; even China, which is fast developing, faces several criticisms.
The government, however, is responsible for preventing chaos, anarchy, and disorder.
"We should be thankful that martial law was declared, or Mr. Jose Maria Sison would have taken over the government," Enrile recalled.
"Our economy then was hit by a global crisis. America was on a downturn, and it brought down the Philippines with it," he said. "History will give us a fair picture of the past, such as what happened in Roman times, the Persian period and the Assyrian period."
Similarly, history will bear out that martial law was what was called for.
According to the seasoned public servant, he could vouch for the Marcos military rule being fair and far from what was painted by the opportunists.
"If they call the declaration of martial law a dictatorship, then what was the description of the government when President Cory Aquino took over? She was the legislator and the executive. Cory, the supposed saint of democracy, changed the 1973 Constitution that the Filipinos voted for," Enrile said.
With a single signature, she changed the Constitution and assembled 60 individuals who were supposedly knowledgeable on the laws to craft the 1987 Constitution, Enrile said, recounting the forming of the Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Charter.
Even though he held the executive and legislative functions, Enrile said Marcos made sure "we were all working under a system of democratic procedure."
Marcos, he said, did not monopolize the government. "All the laws created under martial law were deliberated, debated, and discussed."
As proof of the just creation of the presidential decrees by Marcos, Enrile said that most are still being used by the government "because they were well thought out."
"Compare that with the laws being passed now. After a few years, these are required to be revised because of mistakes," he said.
The Supreme Court was always there to balance the executive and the legislative.
"Can anyone say how many decrees passed during martial law were turned down by the SC as unconstitutional?"
Of course, all were correctly upheld and in accord with the Basic Law.
