Batas Mauricio JUST to put the declaration made by President Duterte of a “state of lawlessness” in the country in the aftermath of the deadly Sept. 2, 2016 Davao City bombing in its proper perspective, it must be pointed out right away that the President has the requisite power to make such a declaration. Under Section 18, Art. VII of the 1987 Constitution, it is the right of the President to determine whether, in the light of events or occurrences, the country is under a state of lawlessness and, as a consequence, to call out the armed forces--the police and the military and other government agencies authorized to bear arms--to deal with such lawlessness. It is the president’s sole prerogative to make that declaration. The power given to him by the Constitution is so broad and encompassing that no one is virtually allowed to contest his decision. He need not even declare martial law, or suspend the right of citizens not to be arrested without a warrant. Once he believes violence has escalated so much, he can already order all armed personnel of the government to respond!
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The claim by Interior and Local Government Secretary Mike Sueno that politicians running for office in the Philippines are routinely getting support from drug lords and syndicates must have some right of truth in it. I say this because in this year’s elections particularly, many politicians openly distributed big money to buy their votes, in almost all barangays of the country. Social networking sites like Facebook carried pictures of people lining up in politicians’ houses a day or two (or even on the day itself) of the May 9, 2016 elections, and they were there not to simply lend their support to the candidates. They were there waiting for their turn to be given money, in exchange of their, and their families’ votes. The question is, where did these politicians get all that money? It could not have been from their own businesses or legitimate employments. The money could have come only from syndicates dealing in drugs, gambling, drug running, and other vices. Surely, there was a quid pro quo in this: syndicates gave money to the politicians, in exchange for their support and protection in their nefarious activities. The same thing could be said of candidates in the national level who spent millions and millions of pesos in their campaign--for their radio-TV and movie advertisements, not to mention print and online advertising campaigns. Again, many candidates for national positions spent so much in their bids to win votes one would think they have factories printing money. Yet, Filipinos simply accepted such heavy campaign expenditures as a fact. Nobody asked where did these candidates for national positions get their money in the first place. Nobody dared question them who were the people that bankrolled their spending sprees. We simply assumed it was all right that national candidates would have supporters who will pay for their campaign bills. Yet, there is a law directing disclosures of these campaign contributors, precisely to prevent drugs money, or gambling money, or any money coming from any other spurious or questionable source, from being used to elect presidents, vice presidents, or senators. When the candidate is supported by drug lords or drug syndicates, we can be assured that the candidate, after winning, will refuse to wage a campaign against illegal drugs. For six years under the Aquino government, we have seen this refusal of its officials to stem the menace of drug addiction, and so I am tempted to ask: why? When the candidate is supported by gambling lords or any other syndicate dealing in vices and criminality, we can be very sure that all forms of gambling and syndicate activities will flourish when that candidate wins. We have seen this happen in the past, where our country and our people were in the grip of jueteng lords and other criminal lords. Where are we headed? To the dogs, of course! It was a good thing President Duterte won last May, and so the Philippines is now reaping the benefit of a leader who has no pity for drug lords and crime syndicates, and who has no qualms about purging evil from our midst. Let us hope that Duterte will succeed in killing all vices and their perpetrators for once! May God have mercy on all of us!44E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com