EDITORIAL - Fear of martial law does not make it bad

Why are certain people against martial law? Martial law, per se, is not bad. Otherwise it would not be provided for in the Constitution as one of the powers a president may lawfully exercise. To address the possibility of abuse, the same constitution instituted stringent requirements before it can be declared and safeguards to make sure it is implemented according to the letter of its intent.

Maybe this aversion to martial law springs from the bad experience they had in the only notable time in history that the country was placed under it -during the dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. And that, of course, is perfectly understandable. But the dictatorship has long been dismantled. The country has long moved on to become one of the most dynamic in the region.

If the Constitution, crafted in 1987 under the guidance of the very person who led the overthrow of the dictatorship, and with provisions specifically intended to discourage or prevent the rise of another one, still sees it fit to retain this awesome power under the authority of the president but subject to the concurrence of the Congress, then why the inordinate fear?

The martial law that is in place has limited scope and duration. It is effective only in Mindanao and will expire at the end of the year, although the president wants it extended for another. In virtually all surveys, most people in Mindanao want martial law to continue and it has nothing to do with the ethnicity of Duterte, who is from Davao.

In their own words the people of Mindanao, meaning they who are actually under martial law, want martial law to stay for as long as it takes to rid the island of its traditional and new troublemakers. At no time in recent history have they felt more secure than now and they cannot understand what the fuss generated by those who are not from Mindanao is all about.

To be sure, the lingering fears of those for whom martial law evokes nothing but anger and fear cannot be assuaged by the simple expediency of selectivity in scope and definiteness in duration. But life is always about learning from bad experiences, not a complete shutdown from challenges. The worst a people can do to their country is to cage it for fear of what the freedom outside might bring when that freedom demands real and hard decisions to be made.