Nakaumang ang Martial Law —Satur Ocampo (Sa isyu ng state of lawless violence)

HINDI kailangang magdeklara si Pangulong Ridrigo Duterte ng state of lawlessness sa gitna ng pagpapatuloy ng ‘giyera’ laban sa ilegal na droga, ayon kay dating Bayan Muna party-list representative Satur Ocampo.

Sa Tapatan sa Aristocrat media forum sa Malate, Maynila, nagbabala si Ocampo na may posibi-lidad na magbigay-daan ang deklarasyon ng lawless violence sa pagdedeklara ng martial law at suspensiyon ng writ of habeas corpus.

“It is not legally necessary to make a declaration of lawless violence. Even without that declaration, we are sending wrong signals. It would alarm the people that there could be a tendency of the president exercising extraordinary powers under the Constitution, like the declaration of martial law or suspension of writ of habeas corpus,” punto ng dating mambabatas.

Idiniin ni Ocampo na walang nagaganap na tunay na lawless violence sa kabila ng patuloy na pagtugis ng mga awtoridad sa mga kilalang drug pusher at kriminal para sa deklarasyon ng batas  militar  sa  bansa  o ilang bahagi nito.

“It sends the wrong signal because the coverage was the entire Philippines. It would appear the entire country is under the scenario of lawless, which is not a fact. The factual setting is an overwhelming portion of the country is peaceful and there is no lawless violence,” aniya.

Ayon naman sa manunulat na si Raisa Robles, may akda ng Marcos Martial Law: Never Again, nangangamba siya na ang deklarasyon ng martial ay magbubunsod ng mga warrantless arrest tulad noong panahon ng yumaong Pangulong Ferdinand Marcos at gayondin kay da-ting Pangulong Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo nang magdeklara ng national emergency noong 2006.

“When you declare a state of lawlessness, this could lead to abuses on political, civil and human rights in the implementation of the declaration, like what happened when former pre-sident Gloria Ma-capagal-Arroyo declared a state of lawlessness, and it spawned unwarranted illegal arrests, which the Supreme Court no less debunked as illegal,” paliwanag ni Robles.

Inihaayag ng kilalang manunulat na habang hindi katumbas ng deklarasyon ni Duterte ang pagdedeklara ng martial law, maaaring maging daan ito para sa pagkakaroon ng martial rule at suspensiyon ng writ of habeas corpus.

“It’s completely different from the declaration of martial law or suspension of writ of habeas corpus. But what I’m saying is it created an alarming atmosphere among our people that there could be a predisposition that the next step is declaration of martial law or suspension of writ of habeas corpus,” aniya.

“We should not go back to martial law regime of the late president Marcos, which spawned atrocities of human rights violations and inordinate plunder of the economy,” dagdag ni Robles.

ni Tracy Cabrera