EDITORIAL - Yes to martial law but in Mindanao only

That there is widespread support for President Duterte's martial law in Mindanao is beyond question. It showed in the joint congressional approval of its extension up to December 31, and even in the Supreme Court concurrence with the initial declaration. The surveys show it in the high trust ratings for the president after he made the imposition. Even talk among the general population suggests, if not total approval, then at least acquiescence.

So there should no longer be any debate about martial law as it is. Those who keep on harping against it, in face of all the support to the contrary, can only be in it for their own interests. Any claim that tries to invoke the name of the people is destined to fall flat on its face in light of the aforementioned evidence. Martial law, for whatever it is worth, has got the nation's okay.

However, it would be interesting to find out if the overwhelming public approval of martial law in Mindanao is due to its perceived effectivity and necessity in battling the security crisis in Mindanao, or whether it has everything to do with the desire, especially by people outside Mindanao, to keep martial law in effect where it is in effect now.

In other words, the people in the Visayas and in Luzon could quite possibly be in favor of martial law in Mindanao for as long as it is kept in Mindanao. After all, that was what the proposition had been all along. There was never any talk of extending martial law to also cover the Visayas or even the entire country. But in the back of so many minds, that has always been the fair.

So naturally, when people in the Visayas and in Luzon are confronted with the proposition of martial law in Mindanao, the tendency would naturally be to agree. It probably would have been an entirely different matter altogether if the proposition went something like extending martial law to cover the Visayas and even all the way up to Luzon.

This fear was very evident in the question of one reporter during a press conference Duterte had after his SONA. Despite the fact that Congress, in joint session just the day before, voted overwhelmingly to extend martial law in Mindanao to the end of the year, the reporter still asked Duterte if he can categorically say there will be no martial law nationwide. You already know how Duterte answered that one. But the question had to be asked. The fear had to be tamed.