Is the ‘martial law’ threat real, or is it mostly in the media?

Frankly, as a former prisoner of Marcos martial law in September 1972, I am a bit dumbfounded and completely fascinated by the current hysteria being whipped up regarding La Gloria’s alleged plans to impose "martial law" under the guise of emergency rules, or whatever.

Television daily "interviews" dozens of "scared" jeepney drivers, vendors, men-and-women-in-the-street, angry students, furiously-frustrated demonstrators, etc., all deploring creeping martial law "ala Marcos" (many of them too young to remember any of those vicious years). From congressmen to the Commission on Human Rights, there have come condemnations of La Glo’s CPR, i.e. "calibrated preemptive response", by which policemen chase away rallyists without permits – like the aborted march on Malacañang via Mendiola – as an attack on the "freedom and rights" of the people and the stifling of dissent. Oh well. Nothing is so pathetic as any bunch which calls for a Revolution, but nobody comes.

If the "people" really wanted to storm the gates of Malacañang, like the French storming of The Bastille on the 14th Thermidor, they could – and would. But I don’t see the angry masses boiling over the roadblocks or barricades.

I’m not discounting a possible future "eruption" in an archipelago which sits on 22 active volcanoes, but I don’t see any martial law, much less "people power", yet. The excitement seems to be mostly in the media. Let me say it again: I think our people are tired of tumult. We had People Power – yes, Virginia, we were the ones at the EDSA Barricades in February 1986 – and what we got was Cory Cojuangco Aquino. We had EDSA DOS "People Power" against Erap in January 2001 – and we got Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. If we have People Power EDSA TRES this month, or this year, whom will we get? Noli de Castro, or, if she wins her protest – which doesn’t appear to be gaining too much ground too fast – Loren Legarda? A civilian junta? A People’s Court? Saan tayo pupunta? A new "snap" election? To be supervised by what body? Not the Comelec, thank you.

In sum, all this agitation and angst we’re being inflicted with seems headed in no direction.

* * *

I’ve been giving too many speeches, I discovered to my dismay, in the past week and a half: to the Manila Rotary Club in the Makati Shangri-la, at a farewell dinner for Chinese Ambassador Wu Hongbo in Greenhills, to the National Defense College Foundation in Fort Bonifacio, to the Consular Corps of the Philippines in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel – and even to a wonderful audience of doctors, professionals and patients at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City, on "Reaching Out, Bridging Lives".

Soon, I’ll be called – to trot out that old corny joke long over-used – NATO, or No Action, Talk Only. I’m now adopting the policy, for the moment, of no more speechmaking for a while. The adage used to be that "speech is silver, silence is golden." The truth is that speech is not even as good as silver these days. By being over-stretched, speech has been devalued into a mere placebo. In this land, we too often mistake speech for action. As a result, nothing gets really done.

What was useful, I think in retrospect, about inter-acting with my varied audiences (the ones I bored to tears) is that during the open forums I discovered what they really wished to know. Most of those present wanted to know what they themselves could do to help in our nation’s present predicament, amidst all the confusion, disappointment and discouragement.

I was compelled to fall back on my old refrain. I would say that in my younger days one of my favorite saints was St. Christopher, who carried a Little Boy across the river, but found the child getting heavier and heavier (so that he, Christopher almost faltered and drowned). After Christopher reached the other shore, gasping, it was revealed to him that the child on his shoulder had really been Jesus, the Christ Child, on whose shoulders in turn were, the heaviest of burdens, the sins and cares of the world. It was a marvelous tale, especially the clincher: For his effort, the saint was renamed "Christopher," the Christ Bearer.

Somehow, Christopher (Cristobal) became the "Saint for Travellers" – and both my work and predilection tended to make me a traveler. Christopher Columbus, the Genoese Admiral who "discovered" the New World for Spain was named after him. Et cetera.

Alas, one day I woke up to find out that Christopher was no longer a saint. In fact, The Vatican, after pious study and prayer (centuries too late) had concluded he never existed. By golly, I was crushed. Even more disappointed was a growing group of Christians whose numbers were multiplying faster than the loaves and fishes at the Mount of Beatitudes. This were the modernday Christ-Bearers, who had dubbed themselves the "Christopher Movement." They symbolized their commitment, and convinced would-be converts, by assembling people in a darkened room, or in a darkened auditorium. When it was total blackout, each one was called upon to strike a match, or light a candle, and suddenly the room, or the auditorium, was bathed once more in light – more than that, blazing with brightness. (They must have had the Fire Department, I must add parenthetically, close at hand, just in case the demonstration got out of hand).

In any event, they got their message across with – impact. And their inspiring message was: "It is better to light a candle, than to curse the darkness."

St. Christopher may be gone – yet, admittedly he remains real in my heart. And that message remains true: Better light a candle than to curse the darkness.

In the gathering gloom which threatens to enshroud our land and falsely dim our future, in this hour of confusion, conflict and the raising of "false flags", in this moment when our hearts seem collectively to falter, it is up to us to recover the initiative: to banish the darkness, by exposing lies, and fighting disappointment.

The challenge to us is to resist the cynicism that clouds our hearts. We will win – if only we decide to brighten the corner where we are.

The American novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald, author of The Great Gatsby, wrote in 1945: "Show me a hero and I will write you a tragedy."

Today’s turmoil is a tragedy in search of heroes. One of them could be you.