President GMA’s prerogative as commander-in-chief

I was finishing my column when I was told that President GMA had just declared a state of emergency. It was the topic of conversation among the guests at the vin de honneur given by Estonia Honorary Consul Fernando Pena. Also there were colleagues Jarius Bondoc, Alex Magno, co-exiles Sonny Alvarez and Francis Manglapus and an EDSA 1 veteran, Belle Cunanan. I also met our publisher Max Soliven just as I was leaving the Manila Polo Club and he said he had just spoken to the President.

It is too early to predict how the situation will develop. Suffice it to say that for the moment it is the President’s prerogative as the commander-in-chief to declare a state of emergency. If the situation deteriorates, then it may become necessary to take further steps like the suspension of habeas corpus and then declare martial law. That would be more complicated. Some justices and constitutional experts support President GMA’s move. It is constitutional. The President is empowered under Article VII, Section 18 to do so. "The President shall be the Commander-in-Chief of all armed forces of the Philippines and whenever it becomes necessary he (or she) may call out such armed forces to prevent or suppress lawless violence, invasion or rebellion." The state of emergency was proclaimed under EO 1017. It fell short of citing rebellion after anti-GMA protesters were set to move in three planks, poised to wreak havoc.

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But to go back to EDSA 1. When the first February EDSA people revolution was breaking out in Manila, I was sideswiped by a London taxi just as I was about to cross the street near my home. Thankfully only the bagful of groceries I was carrying fell to the ground. I quickly picked up my bearings and ran home to tell my story of the near mishap to my daughter Veronica. While she was sorry to hear that she managed to chide me. "Oh, no, Mama, you have to be more careful. What a pity if you do not live to see the end of the Marcos dictatorship," she said wisely. Veronica and her siblings grew up in exile and Philippine politics was the background of our daily life. Each day we waited for the time we might be able to return home.

Had she said it any other day, it would not have registered with me. I had learned to accept threat and danger for a very long time since I wrote the Untold Story of Imelda Marcos, being sideswiped by a London taxi could hardly match other threats we have had and managed to thwart. But this was a different morning. Already, news was filtering out on BBC and ITN of a revolt that was brewing in Manila. I remember very distinctly that Secretary of State George Schultz said in an interview even before the Ramos-Enrile breakaway that ‘high-level defections were expected’ whatever he meant by that.

When Consul Raul Rabe announced his defection from Honolulu, we knew this was the cue to set in motion the EDSA of the Filipinos in London. We immediately got in touch with Consul Cora Belmonte and asked her if we could do the same. Happily, Rabe she said was someone she respected and if he made that step, then she would follow suit. Not so with others in the embassy.

We would organize Filipinos to rally in Kensington Church at the back of the embassy and she and whoever would come with her among the embassy staff would join us in solidarity with EDSA as it was unfolding in Manila. She would say a few words to the gathered Filipino community. By that time, the church was swarming with TV cameras, thanks to another Filipina, Maria Ronson of ITN who alerted London media of the Filipino rally and the forthcoming defection (although this was still touch and go as we negotiated with the consul). The ambassador then was the late JV Cruz and if I remember right he was not in London at the time.

From that first event we never let up, making sure that the British government and media would be constantly informed and made aware of the Filipino community’s solidarity with EDSA. Among other things, we formed a delegation to the Foreign Office and handed a letter pleading that the British government withdrew its support for the Marcos government. Since Cardinal Sin and the CBCP in Manila was at the helm of the protest movements in Manila we likewise got in touch with the Catholic Bishops in England and Wales. The bishops made their own statement of support to the CBCP letter and this was read at the mass for the Filipinos at the Westminster Cathedral.

The anti-Marcos movement in the UK was nurtured through many years of politicization and the trials and tribulations of those years can not be encompassed in paragraphs. Filipinos in London were largely workers who had come to earn a living, not to be taught about politics. But in time, they saw the relation between being forced to work away from home and the politics of a repressive regime. They had to be convinced that economic and social reforms are best carried out in an atmosphere of freedom and democracy. For the politicization of Filipinos in the UK we worked under two umbrellas — the Confederation of Filipino Overseas Organization (COFOO) which addressed OFW concerns like high passport fees, double taxation, no right to vote and other matters generally to raise the workers’ capacity to deal with problems they had whether it had to do with the British or the Marcos-led Philippine government. In time, we networked with other organizations in France, Italy, Spain and even in cold Norway. To sustain the work we published first Balita, then Pahayagan as a vehicle for communicating and uniting Filipinos.

We were in touch with NAMI, the Ninoy Aquino Movement International, and served as the European arm of the US-based opposition. Cecil Alvarez was just a phone-call away and we exchanged and shared information as we went along. Bert spearheaded many community movements, the most important of which was the Resident Domestic Campaign which protected Filipinos from summary deportation. We’ve said many times we will write about it later. I can never forget how we accompanied a delegation of Filipinos to the European Court of Human Rights to hear our case. We were billeted in some student pension house not far from the Strasbourg court. The workers were so thrilled. "Hindi siguro maniniwala sa akin ang aking mga pamilya sa Pinas na nagpunta kami dito." (My family would not believe me if I wrote home that I was here in Strasbourg to fight for our rights.) In hindsight, the Filipino community in London was politicized by this welding of a community concerns and political issues. We also published Pahayagan, a European-wide community newspaper.

Today, the Filipino community in Europe has changed and certainly in London, I know that after we left several organizations and newspapers blossomed on their own accord. That was the reward in itself – that we were able during the long exile in London to plant seeds of political awareness among Filipinos even while in exile. Come to think of it, I might have ended my own exile but my comrades in those dark days have not. Filipinos who work abroad are exiles – albeit for economic reasons.

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My e-mail is [email protected]