Can martial law ever be justified? ‘Human flow’ on exhibit

I wrote yesterday about the difference between the situations in Thailand and the Philippines. In Thailand, the military set itself up to end the conflict between the Reds (said to be in support of the incumbent government headed by Yingluck Shinawatra) and the Yellows (Thais who are the traditional power players). In a sense it is between the old and the new.

The case of the Philippines is quite different. It is about how an incumbent government (led by President Aquino) is being slowly set up, step by step, as a dictatorship by destroying the checks and balance of democratic government. Moreover, his election in 2010 and the senatorial elections in 2013 up to this day are in  question with no answers on just how a foreign group, Smartmatic-PCOs was used in defiance of the Constitution.

This group is known for questionable elections in other countries and faces suits including from its own system provider. It is strange and highly suspicious that it was allowed to take over the functions of a constitutional body like Comelec.

With a click of a button in Internet, our government officials would have known its reputation in elections elsewhere and why other governments would have nothing to do with it.

 This is not to say that manual elections did not have its defects and that there has been no cheating in past elections. The difference is between wholesale cheating and retail cheating. Voters have absolutely no chance against wholesale cheating done secretly by Smartmatic-PCOS programmers. To date nothing has been said about changing the system so that means goodbye to elections forever.

*      *      *

Soon after we were treated to serious acts of abuses of government one after another, again not about small time corruption but about multi-billion payoffs to legislators to obey the personal whims of a dubiously elected President without question – the impeachment of Chief Justice Renato Corona, the continued imprisonment of former President Gloria Arroyo without conviction and then…the most horrific discovery that the payola of billions of pesos for following the President was created through PDAF and DAP.

In other words, taxpayers money is being used for private and personal purposes instead of government obligations like infrastructure and health services. These have been abandoned with impunity. Media has also been captured to give paeans to this kind of abusive governance as the price to pay for being praised as the emerging tiger of the region by questionable credit rating agencies. With the false elections of 2010 and 2013, added to the latest scandals point to a carefully planned destruction of the Philippine state. Worse, any objections or criticism of abusive government are rejected.

*      *      *

Given the foregoing, with little room to maneuver, the citizenry has become helpless and even as I write this column trying as hard as possible to organize against its own government to save the state.

The Constitution specifically states the obligation of the military to come to protect the state but with a specific proviso that it will do so only under a civil authority. I know there are groups putting together a National Transformational Council as the civil authority that can set up a transition government with revolutionary powers. It has to be set up before the military can be called in as required by Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution. So the onus is not on the military but on civic-minded citizens who desire an able, just and efficient governance.

I would compare our situation to a person being bludgeoned to death by an aggressor. Is he ever justified in defending himself? The answer is yes even under the strictest moral standard. Enlarge that individual to a state being destroyed to death by its own government and its only hope of surviving is to seek the protection of the military as mandated by the Constitution. I think each of us can think for ourselves on what is the right thing to do.

*      *      *

I was at the Alexander Charriol exhibit which opened last Thursday at the Altro Mondo in Greenbelt 5. At first, I was puzzled by the paintings and the title of the exhibit. Until I asked gallery owner Remigio David who has embarked on a mission to bring the best of contemporary art to the local scene and expose the world to the artworks of Filipinos as well.

What is Charriol about? daily life. He is painting emotion, David said. These are human beings in different settings whose emotions are not always obvious to a new eye but when pointed to like Charriol did opens up a new world of expression. I plan to go back and look at the paintings again that have been described as “deeply engaged with the human condition.”

The title “Human Flow IV” of the exhibit was spot on showing painting of figures in a crowded train or bustling down a city street or of how a solitary face would look like in a nightclub.

*      *      *

I had wanted to bring along my  friend from Turkey, Gözde Dizdar, to the Charriol exhibit but she was flying home that afternoon. A unique individual (well, who isn’t unique?) the exhibit would be very much to her liking. After three visits she has decided to make the Philippines her second home and vows to come back and forth to cement the friendship between our two countries.

She has a formidable CV besides belonging to one of the richest families in Turkey owning the famous products of Elginkan which will soon be available in Manila.

But she is more than just a businesswoman or a trader. She is a refreshing intellectual with many ideas on how to bridge peoples of the world. She has worked with the United Nations, the World Bank and the International Republican Institute.

She plans to run as member of Parliament in the next election in Ankara. Just to give you an inkling of how she thinks she chose the topic on “The Relationship Between Power, Modernity and Knowledge by Foucault’ as her master’s degree.

I met her during the recent elections in Azerbaijan through CAPDI head, former Speaker Jose de Venecia, who has found a career in seeking talented and gifted individuals to join his international initiatives for a better world.