i believe the filipinos need to have a stronger justice system. We are like children---immature and selfish. In order to alleviate the problems such as corruption, palakasan system, etc., we need to instill discipline in the young people. we need someone like bayani fernando. The main problem is we are TOO friendly. we rely on the palakasan system. whoever has friends in the high places gets what they want. why is that? perhaps, that is the nature of filipinos---"friendly." if that is so, then we should not rule ourselves. Perhaps, we shouldn't have gotten rid of the spanish government or the american government. If the country is only getting worse by the second, then why is it necessary for us to have our own government? is it pride that makes us believe that we can handle our own country? if it is, then it's our pride that keeps the poor starving and without shelter. to have peace and growth in our society, we are gonna need some serious changes. bring back the goddamn martial law; i dont care as long as we are improving as one united nation. force is the answer. marikina is a damn good example isn't it? doctors wanna come to US as freakin nurse or assistants just to give their families a better life. what the hell is up with that? there's obviously something wrong with this scene. it's gonna take a long time to solve the predicament we are in. we're better off changing our nationality ( just kidding).

what i suggest is make bayani fernando our president or someone like him that can handle all the bullshit the filipinos have. what bullshit? everybody knows what bullshit i'm talkin about because we're all guilty of it. i dont think i need to give any example. just look outside your window; it's very clear. the politicians arent the problem, well they make problems worse, but it's us, the filipino citizens. we dont want to be disciplined because we're like childrens.

With all due respect to the thread starter, I don't think martial law is the answer to the Filipino problem. Has our memory become so acutely affected that we forgot the events that transpired 30 years ago?

Transplant the Filipino to other lands where laws are enforced and we follow the law to the letter. In our land, people know we can get away with breaking the law and thus the laws are broken. Add to this fact that the biggest lawbreakers of all are those tasked to legislate and enforce them. Let me give you a concrete example. Just this morning, on the way to work, I was stuck in (the usual) traffic along C5 going to Makati. Vehicle volume was formidable, but moving. It was following an orderly queue until it got disrupted by 4 vehicles. One was a "hagad" MMDA on a big bike. The other was a black Nissan patrol with 4 armed personnel. The plate on the Patrol was number 6 with "MMDA" plastered right across it. This was followed by a white newer model Patrol, presumably carrying the escorted "6 - MMDA" plate owner (guess who?). Bringing up the rear was another "hagad". It would have been tolerable if this secretary ("6" on the plate) would follow the rules of the road. You think that happened? Buddy, hell has a greater chance of freezing over. Of course they weaved in and out of traffic, ignoring rules of physics that only one form of matter can occupy a specific place at a time.

Closer to home. Forget foreign lands. Think John Hay when it was still occupied by the Americans. Think Subic under the US and then during Gordon's time. Why did the Filipinos who visited these places follow the law? BECAUSE IT WAS ENFORCED WITH NO FEAR NOR FAVOUR! That, my friend, should be done on a nationwide scale. We do not need a dictatorship. We need a justice system that is blind to social status, religion and colour. We need enforcement of the laws from the highest to the lowest level of society. Poverty (nor riches) should be an excuse. Neither should ignorance...

my point is that because we are filipinos, we will always take each other for granted. we are not capable of "justice blind of social status, religion, and colour." why not? because that is our nature. until we are forced to change our "nature" by a strict leader with discipline and good intentions, we will never improve as a society. let's try and accept the reality. democracy isn't working for us. democracy only works for countries that actually enforce justice. we dont! i believe that we try to have justice, but we'll never experience it fairly.

we, filipinos, are educated people except pride and selfishness of the powerful will always overshadow the weak.

Stang,
Point well taken. I actually agree that this type of democracy does not work for us. But then again, IS the system we are in actually a democracy? My take is that we have not graduated from a feudal system where politicians have their own little fiefdoms composed of the ignorant. The ignorance is perpetuated because that is the only way these nincompoops can remain in power. So you see, it is not really a democracy we are in but feudalism dressed up in a democracy.

I forgot to mention in my earlier post how Marikina came to be resurrected from the "rape capital of the Philippines" to one of the cleanest and most vibrant cities. It was NOT through martial law, but strict enforcement of the law. The people of Marikina are now proud of their clean environment and (relatively) crime-free society. Of course there is always some form of disorder (as is true elsewhere in the world), but generally Marikina is a model city for other cities to follow. If I may extrapolate, it would also behoove the National Government to look at how Marikina was transformed. It took only two words: POLITICAL WILL. Something this government acutely lacks.

I still posit that Martial Law is NOT the solution to what ails the nation. Political will to enforce the law is. The Filipino CAN be taught. Look at Marikina and Olongapo...

Correct. And in martial law, who will run the country but these selfish and proud people currently in power?

alright let me clear this up. i only put up that title to attract readers. i really dont believe that martial is the answer to our problems, but we do need a strict leader that can truly assert himself and effectively apply the laws, not for himself, but for the welfare of our nation.

Is transformation of Philippines possible? perhaps. it happened to Marikina, why can't it happen to the whole country? because there too many influential people that will be greatly affected; they dont want to lose a few bucks.

Hear, hear. I, however, am an optimist. I think it can be done, albeit slowly

honest dictator is what our country needs. if there is such a thing?

lighten up guys. there is always room for intellectual discussions.

glad to see this site up and running again. cheers!!!

Lee Kuan Yew?

Just like my moms thinking Marcos supporter kasi Its seems an ideal solution for now but it is hard to say who is best to handle a huge amount of power in ones hands.

"If men were angels we wouldn't need a government to govern us"

tama! yan lang naman eh. kamay na bakal sabi nga nila.

permit me to digress a little bit from the topic of martial law. I have often read that many have lamented about our lack of nationhood despite over a century of so-called independence. they said it is this lack of nationhood that possibly explains why we are an impoverished people. nationhood is something deeper than a people defending itself against a foreign agressor or showing a semblance of unity when someone carries the country's colors in international competitions. nationhood is expressions and actuations of genuine concern for the welfare of his coutnrymen and not about putting his family first above his country.
sadly, it is not only the latter case that is the prevalent social anomaly in the country, but sheer lack of discipline and apathy among many Filipinos. You see these daily when Filipinos act as individuals. It shows in traffic or when on the road, in queues, being litterbugs, etc. matigas na ang ulo mga ito kasi pinabayaan silang gumawa nito hanggat makagawian na nila ito.
To a larger extent, our sense of nationhood is also lost in the political struggle for power. Factionalism is what best describes administrations holding the government even during the time of the Philippine Revolution when it was divided between Aguinaldo and Bonifacio. Since then, the struggle for political power has evolved into a system and structure that allow political protagonists to perpetuate themselves. It is this struggle for political power that is costing the Filipino people dearly in many ways. The protagonists involved (like the landed, compradors, bureaucrat capitalists, etc.) do not neccessarily carry an agenda that redound to the people. On the contrary, they carry interests directly opposed to the people. Oh, did i mention the foreign imperialists who manipulate to benefit from the internal power struggle? So, on a lower level we see Filipinos as matigas ang ulo and seem to be a hopeless lot. On a higher level, we have political system that pits the powerful few among themselves, which is even harder to rectify.
In the midst of these political struggle among opposing vested interests posing as patriots, how can POLITICAL WILL become a reality? how can these powerful few represent and take the cudgels of the Filipino people's interests?
one of the excuses of martial rule is to correct the ills of society. well, it was tried and it failed miserably. marcos did not turn out to be like "honest dictators" like Lee kuan yew or mahathir mohamad who ruled their countries with iron fists. You may hate them for being undemocratic, but they led thier countries to its current state that is the envy of other countries. as for the Philippines, what followed after Marcos are administrations and its favored oligarchy trying to copy the legacy of betrayal, plunder (and indebtedness) left by marcos.
Manuel L. Quezon once said, "i rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by Americans." too bad, no one said to him to be careful of what he wished for. well, it just got true.
surely, there are bright moments in our history, but in the end, we are still where we are now -- a nation that is, according to some UP economists, on the verge of "collapse" in a few years time.
it is from this backdrop that i wish to pose the question: what good is independence if we do not have any sense of nationhood as a people to begin with? are we really better off being colonized?
you may nail me to the cross for saying this (quite understandable), but sometimes my frustrations of the country lead me to think that Filipinos do not deserve to be a nation.
then again, although history has shown that we can have people far better and deserving than those who became past and present leaders, i hope there is this one exception in our history that Filipinos produce heroes who are truly deserving to lead the country and inculcate the values of nationhood. i hope it is not too late for that someone to prove skeptics like me wrong.

I actually agree with your sentiments on whether or not we Filipinos deserve or can handle independence, much less nationhood. It IS very frustrating, and the frustration is more pronounced after disasters and scandals where laws are in place but are not implemented.

It is actually times like these that I miss the likes of Ninoy and Evelio Javier. However skeptical I am, though, I still believe that all we need as a people is a sincere rallying point. Cory Aquino provided that in the events leading to EDSA in 1986, but even her sincerity was not enough to dispel her husband's prediction of the post-Marcos era.

I have posted here an excerpt from a lecture of Mr. Anderson. Professor Anderson is one of the world's leading authorities on South
East Asian nationalism and particularly on Indonesia. In this lecture he
considers the problems Indonesia, Thailand and The Philippines face in creating
stable democracies. Benedict Anderson is Professor of International Studies and Director of the Modern Indonesia Project at Cornell University, New York. This was written during the May 1, 2001, the so called "state of rebellion". He had some interesting observations regarding the Philippines...

"…Now having made these observations, general observations, I want to just say a few things about three countries in South East Asia before coming to some conclusions. I want to start with the Philippines because it’s instructive from our point of view in the fact that it has been holding elections for almost 100 years now, except briefly during the Japanese occupation and at least in part of the so called Marcos era. The fact is that this century of elections at every level - national level, local level and so forth - has done almost nothing to ameliorate the real condition of the Filipino people, most of whom today continue to live in conditions of grinding poverty and humiliation. And we have reasonable reason to think that the system is well organised enough that these elections will go on being held indefinitely, and they will continue to make absolutely no difference. Now the reason why this system produces nothing is too long and complicated to get into this evening. What is crucial however is the fact that quite early in the process the political system, the democratic system taken from the United States, was brought under the control of an oligarchy created by the Americans which found through the electoral processes ways to maintain an iron grip over the Philippine economy and an iron grip over its political system. Local bosses entrenched behind local linguistic walls and secure from national executive control have always used the resources of the weak state to consolidate their control of local electoral fiefdoms by combination of patronage and coercion. Hence the famous private armies and local dynasties for which the country is so well known. It is a sign of their power that since the middle 1940s not a single congressman has ever been elected on the basis of a seriously progressive or left wing program. The consequence of this is that the left wing agenda, or the progressive agenda, has been carried by armed revolutionary groups, none of which has been successful.

But the Philippines today is very different from what it was in the 1950s. It’s got in many ways much, much worse. And in this process, which can’t be simply a question of micro-history, the legacy of one man has been very important. That is, that Ferdinand Marcos ruled that country constitutionally for an initial 7 years and then another 14 years as a dictator. A profoundly corrupt and cynical man, he not only plundered the economy on a vast scale for the benefit of his family and cronies but debauched an already weak legal system. Torture, extrajudicial killings, became commonplace and have remained so up to the present. The regime lied, cheated and coerced, forcing many ordinary people to do so in order to survive. And many people have got into habits which have not been abandoned since the end of the Marcos dictatorship. Marcos brought the military on board in a political sense, and the military has played an important role ever since in Filipino politics. Most recently in overthrowing Joseph Estrada and installing Gloria Arroyo-Macapagal in his place.

Yet one shouldn’t underestimate also the role of chance. Joseph Estrada, who was a loved movie star, not a member of the oligarchy, spoke English badly, was elected with far the largest majority in any post World War Two elections. He had, therefore, the possibility at least of partly breaking the grip of the oligarchy on the political system and ushering in an era of popular empowerment. But he turned out, by chance, to be a weak and corrupt figure, and sufficiently gauche in his plunderings that unlike his smoother predecessors he was finally brought to book by the ruling circle. But the rage of his impoverished supporters that we’ve been watching on our television sets is quite real. In it there is at least one thing: a kind of hope against hope, or at least a hope against structure. Estrada has shown what might be possible, that there are possibilities, and that somewhere, somewhere, a redeemer liveth. This hope has very little in common it must be said with democracy, or with a fatalism that often accompanies it.



...So let me conclude, really conclude, by saying that the solutions, if there are solutions (and I’m skeptical that there necessarily have to be solutions) for the misery of millions and millions of people in Indonesia, in the Philippines and in Malaysia, lie inside those countries themselves. Nobody is going to save them, though it’s certainly true that the activities of the outsiders play an important role. I would say typically the role is on the whole: where it’s good it doesn’t make that much difference and where it’s malign it’s extremely malign. Especially the role of the Americans in the Cold War period was absolutely disastrous for all these countries. But not just the Americans: the British, and it has to be said Australian governments, to their eternal shame, also colluded with Jakarta in the rape of East Timor. But nonetheless the answer is that it has to be done internally. And there I’m not so confident that progress will take place anyway, [that] it’s bound to happen and that democracy is what we need right now because that’s what we’re going to get eventually. I’m a believer in perhaps chance, and a believer in the character of leaders.

I’m also a believer (perhaps a depressed believer) that violence sometimes actually has long term good results. Not a comfortable idea, but I’m afraid that history has suggested it may be so. Thank you.

I agree with the points wiljoe raised as a whole. But I must stress, however, that these points quoted from a certain Professor Anderson, have been echoed in varoius discussions, columns, classes, kapihan meetings and even in the barberyas.

I recall a column by Teddy Benigno not so long ago that violence or a ritual cleansing must be undertaken in order for us Filipinos to realise our nationhood. I hope to God this course would not need to be traversed. I also heard Katrina Legarda saying that one of our faults as Filipinos is that we do not have a sense of moral outrage or righteous anger. While I would want to partially disagree with Benigno, I am wholeheartedly in agreement with Legarda. If the mobs who stormed Malacanang reached the inner sanctum of the Marcoses in 1986, he would have been lynched on the spot along with his rapacious family. Now, almost 2 decades later, I recall Imeldific's entry into the country a couple of years back and also recall how a brave young newscaster said as a side note to the news item she just read "I don't think the country should treat criminals like celebrities". This young lady was later sacked from the network for the comment. Imee Marcos is now in Congress, Bong Bong is governor of his province. Heck, even this Borgy character is in the limelight. WHAT A SHORT MEMORY WE HAVE AS A PEOPLE! I won't even go into the Estrada brouhaha...

But martial law is not the answer. There must be change both in the leadership's and in the citizenry's view of their roles on nation building. We are not in a democracy, no matter what our constitution says. Look at the government system from the Barangay to the national level. It reeks of feudalism and patronage politics. And this, no matter how many elections we hold, is NOT democracy.

do any of you have any suggestions on how to save our country, our nationhood, ourselves from the tyranny of people in high places? all i hear is that violence isn't the answer, but how can we seriously regain power from the corrupt and properly run the country if we don't take it with force. let's be honest, they won't quietly give up their power. let say we elect someone as great as jose rizal to be president; do we honestly believe that he will live long enough to make changes? sad but true, there is just too much evil.

i think there will be complete chaos before we escape the predicament we're in.

Which brings me to my point of a metanoia in both the leadership and the citizenry (though it should occur more in the latter as the former is generally incorrigible). As long as we have the majority of the populace in squalor and ignorance, this feudal set-up will continue. Even if violence erupts and blood is shed and a revolution occurs, with the masses uneducated, one form of tyrrany will replace another. Look at Russia transforming to the Soviet Republic and eventually into what it is today. Still backwater. People are still hungry. There is still no equitable distribution of wealth. Add to this, war is still raging in certain pockets of the former Soviet Republic. Let us not forget our George Santayana: "Those who do not learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them."

Martial Law as a system of and by itself is neither intrinsically good or bad, the point Fr. Bernas often made when they were drafting the 1987 Constitution and deciding back then whether or not to even put in emergency provisions. But the Constitution is very specific as to the terms and conditions to be met before emergency rule may be put in effect. I recall in the aftermath of the May Day tumult of 2001, the Government declared a "state of national emergency" (or some such thing, the exact term eludes me right now). Fr. Bernas was the first to say no such thing exists even in legal fiction.

That led me to two conclusions: 1) Nobody - up to this poinbt in time - wants to have anything to do with a formal declaration of Martial Rule, and 2) There are situations not contemplated by the strict wording of the Constitution when some sort of "state of national emergency" - anything actually short of Martial Rule - MAY BE required.

The question therefore is: How much are Filipinos going to put up with, and how much are they willing to sacrifice to jumpstart ourselves out of our long-lingering rut?

It is hard to unify the country and the masses unless they are educated and taught more about the issues that plague our society. They should not just settle with the history of colonial time and long dead bayani's; but must know more about modern issues and what is going on with the government.

If the educated only know more about this then what would be the use of other "Filipinos" or what we tend to say as lower class. I for one know more about the US constitution and important judicial cases when I was in high school. The education sector should be aware that knowlege is far more powerful than the sword.

Just a thought!

The problem with this country is that the masses keeps on electing the elite (with very few exceptions). Despite the voter education conducted by the PPCRV, there is hardly any change in the voting patterns of the masses.

What this country needs is an alternative political party that would challenge the Lakas_NUCD and the so-called opposition.

I bet they will use FPJ's death during the next election. Jeez straight to heart of the masses kung baga iyong tactic. What's with all those "extreme coverage" of this death I can't believe people are too concern with a celebrity than other important issues that needs the unite all of us.

Martial Law for economic gains just doesn't sing for me (minus my bias in view of Marcos' imposition of and subsequent debacle of our then sturdy economy). Also, it is not the solution for our moral decay. Sent one time by my company to go to Singapore, I commented to one elderly Singaporean that I admire their discipline as exemplified by a very clean Chinatown (I guess the only clean Chinatown in the world). He retorted that discipline has nothing to do with it but the hefty fine that is imposed for breaking city ordinances. Lee Kuan Yu and his cohorts got their own belief and we got our own. And our faith just doesn't jibe with their rationale - remember Lee's comment about EDSA 2? Instead of Martial Law, let us just give emphasis again to Marital Laws. If 97% of the Filipino families are stable, I'm sure the country will be in the same state. And so woe to Spain w/c just gave its ok to gay marriage. See, we're even better than our ancestral benefactor. Our patron Ignatius must be whincing from pain again! AMDG

I think part of the problems we encounter in this pitiful nation of ours is not the dearth of laws, but the lack of the will to impose them. This is specially true in the case of the so-called high and mighty. If mere traffic rules cannot be imposed on self-indulgent lowlife forms such as those bearing single digit plates who need a police escort wherever they go, then what more to the common person? In fact, those who are designated to uphold the laws are the most blatant law-breakers.

those damn cops! let me ask any of you. how high is the education level of the police officers in our country? let me rephrase, how come they are so weak ( and by weak, i mean easily influenced by money and power)?

As a child of Martial Law victims, I only have this to say: a defective democracy is better than a dictatorship. As the tag line of a local newspaper here in Davao goes: Constant vigilance is the price of freedom. Our democracy can only work if everybody takes to heart their responsibilities as a citizen of this country.

Yes, and this is true in a true and mature democracy; and this is what we must strive for. However, ours is not democracy but feudalism disguised as the former. THAT is what must change. The problem is, many interpret strict implementation of the laws as being under martial rule. Freedom carries with it responsibility both to self and to society. Filipinos in general do not understand this while in the Philippines, and therefore the chaos in society. Transplant them to democracies where laws are enforced and then they become the most law abiding yokels there. This is true both in the poor and the rich.

i have to agree with what doc said... we have proven that it can be done, pinoys can in fact be disciplined. makati and subic are two prime examples, some say marikina din daw, but i don't go there often enough to know. it's quite disappointing to think that people reserve their best behavior for only the places i've mentioned. if it can be done in makati, then how come d pwede sa lahat?

there you go. excellent point! it's obvious that the filipino media plays a huge role in warping the minds of our weak kababayans. The media affects not only the poor mentality of the filipinos, but also the outcome of our future. But, i guess, the networks will go with whatever sells, right?

Yup, after the tsunami coverages i'm sure back to politics na ulit.

You cannot educate a hungry population. You cannot teach democracy to the oppressed. You cannot preach justice when everyday people are living in a corrupt, unjust and opressive society. You cannot teach middle class values and ideals to the poor.

If a revolution erupts, blood will be shed, no doubt. For the poor only knows one thing right now, revenge. They just need an object of hate and a catalyst to unleash that hatred. Yes theyare wrong. Everything they will do is wrong based on middle class values. Yes another tyranny will rise. The tyranny of the oppressed in the most barbaric form devoid of any ideology nor ideals except revenge and the lust for blood.

Educate the poor? The poor will someday give the middle class and the elite of society the education they deserve. Unless you who are in power will be able to contain this anger using drugs, booze and sex. Or unless a utopian evolution of society headed by your elite will be able to feed, house and cloth the poor.

You cannot even change the the elitist, anti-poor and bloated egos of many Ateneans. How dare you talk about educating the poor, armchair-change-agents.

correct me if i'm wrong but are you saying that education will not solve the problems? i might be wrong here, but i do believe that most poor filipinos are not as barbaric as you might think they are. although, if your assumptions are correct, god save our country!

do you guys know what martial law is for?

enlighten us with your wisdom, pls.

Martial law is mostly instituted when the normal institutions of justice either cannot function or could be deemed too slow or too weak for the new situation, i.e. due to war or civil disorder, in occupied territory, or after a coup d'etat.

Although it is unlikely that it would be implemented, I think the purpose of the topic was that in the current situation the Philippines need something to unite its citizens which is the essential goal of martial law.

Because we dont seem to grow up, individually and as a nation. It always takes an unfateful event to unite us. Filipinos NEED discipline in order to achieve whatever you think is a utopian Philippines. Why is it that people follow the law whenever you are in a different country and then coming back to your own we just tend to disregard it?

magkaiba na sinasabi mo, eh.


stick to the first. maybe you were too young to remember what it was like then. i'd rather have the current situation. and national unity is too vague and undefined to justify military rule. but maybe that's just me.

^ i lived during the marcos years, too. compared to those times, i very much prefer the present state of things, warts and all.

well said, oliver. how sad for people not to understand the value of freedom as what now they have.

It was just a thought of mine. I only learn martial law from books and most of it was based on US constitution (Ex Parte Milligan), so I don't quite know about the Marcos "martial law".

I am also not in favor of suspending habeas corpus and my rights as a person.

Which is actually a shame. It reflects that that dark part of our history is not given enough emphasis in the school system

I find it rather timely that there is a live thread about Martial Law, just when I am tasked to put together the first three chapters of a nine-chapter book on the AFP and Martial Law.

I was actually born a few months just before Proclamation 1081 was read over TV, kaya salong-salo kong lintik na Martial Law. I grew up in downtown Manila itself, so alam ko din lahat ng mga barikada, demo, pakikibaka at kung ano-ano pang slogans. There's even still a part of my mind that recalls snippets of the old Bagong Lipunan song that all school kids then were taught.

As I've grown older though i've come to view this chapter of our history a bit more dispassionately. Martial Law is actually a safety mechanism within our Constitutional framework, of and by itself it is neither good nor bad, although of course the framers of all Constitutions want Martial Law to be an instrument of good. The things is, one can never really account for the intents of men, when even good institutions can be bent for bad ends.

Would I want Martial Law to happen again? If the circumstances called for it, yes I would. Certainly I would not wish a repeat of the Marcos Martial Law. Even the framers of our present 1987 Constitution, a lot of whom were Martial Law victims in one way or another, still saw fit to put provisions for the declaration and institution of Martial Law in our present Basic Law. As long as we remember the lessons of the past, and not take these for granted or set them aside, then we have nothing to fear, even if Martial Law were to be declared all over again.

Not sure I agree with you on this, joe. Also being born about a year before PD 1081, I grew up in the same milieu as you did (although I was in Pasig and not downtown Manila). Nevertheless, while the Constitution does have provisions for the institution of Martial Law, it still leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of people. Not being a constitutionalist and having relegated PoS 100 into the recesses of my subconscious, I am not an authority on the dynamics of re-instituting Martial Law. However, if my limited (alcohol-debilitated) memory serves me correctly, it is a tedious process requiring an act of Congress only as the court of last resort. I don't feel that the present peace and order situation calls for Martial Law. It merely calls for political will. As I stated in earlier posts, once Martial Law is instituted, who will be in charge but those causing the present mayhem (directly or indirectly) anyway?

You're quite right on that score RadonC. Martial Law left a very bitter taste in many mouths now grown up and making their way in the world. And yes, this present lot certainly would be among the last people I would trust in handling martial law in present circumstances. However, I am speaking from a Constitutional standpoint first, meaning that martial law, inspite of its dreadful connotations in these parts, is a mechanism that can actually be used for a good end if there is what you have been harping one: Political Will. I submit that these rpesent times, such as they are, do not call for martial law. And I would probably be among the first to run to the hills or start an urban resistance movement should this present government declare martial law. However, I am also of the view that martial law as a constitutional mechanism, is a good thing and should remain as a legal option for any government.

As am I, joe, as am I. Not with for these bunch of clowns in government, though . They should all be declared unconstitutional...

really now, guys. everywhere in the world, societies are becoming more liberal. and you're saying we should go back to the 19th century?

try this:

www.minimalgovernment.org

No, Mac, that is not what I am saying. I am saying that there should be some order in the way we conduct our lives. True, minimal interference by government in business and the economy would translate to a more efficient and productive way of doing things. However, if the members of society (encouraged by the lawlesness of those in power) propagate anarchy, then we as a nation would not get anywhere.

Martial law is an option in the Constitution, but it does not necessarily mean that the option needs to be taken (that is why it is that - an option).

I think we are all in agreement that minimal government interference is good in the long run. However, minimal government interference works on the premise that the constituents and the bureaucracy are at least disciplined. This sense of discipline is one of the guiding principles of so called self-regulating organizations (security markets in the developed economies come to my mind) where government regulators maintain minimal control over these organizations and let these organizations and their memberships police themselves.

I guess the obvious question to ask is are we Filipinos disciplined enough and therefore responsible enough to have minimal government interference? My opinion is that we practice "selective discipline". When in the US we follow the rules of the road, otherwise we bear the full brunt of the law. When in Singapore we refuse to be litterbugs since we fear getting our butts whipped (literally). When we're back in Inang Pinas, to hell with everything!

Though Mackoy and his Bagong Lipunan had the good intentions of having the obiquitous "Sa Ikauunlad ng Bayan, Disiplina ang Kailangan" ringing in our ears 24/7 during the first few years of 1081, he was hardly the best person to take the lead in fighting for such a just cause. His doing so was akin to the proverbial "pot calling the kettle black".

i get disappointed whenever someone says, "they're not ready for something like this." it's the old elitist mentality at work. it's times like this when i really wish the philippines was communist.

I am more worried about civil disorder i.e. revolution in the next 10-15 years. Our population is increasing at an alarming rate and Gloria does not seem to be concerned. Filipino OFWs are already being sent back from Japan and Malaysia. Pretty soon the millions of OFWs in the Middle East and elsewhere will be sent back for various reasons. Even those employed now in the call center industry will soon see their jobs disappear (China will be a very attractive alternative once they learn their English). Thus, not only will there be no hope for Filipinos to go work abroad but worse those already abroad might be sent back.

Our institutions would obviously not be able to cope with these problems in the future. They couldn't even cope now. Crime will be rampant. Beware of people who are hungry. And uneducated. They now put 80 kids to every class and some are already on double shifts. With no jobs, there is no hope. God help all of us.

Which version?