Action, Not only Vigilance, Against Tyranny

Written on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008 at 9:24 am | by Patricio Mangubat

I admit. My family suffered neither the horrors of Martial Law as what 75,000 tortured Filipinos experienced at the hands of a neurotic madman nor became impoverished by it. No one in my family was captured or thrown in jail and never heard nor seen again. Not one of my aunties was abused or one of my childhood friends went missing all because they militated against the Marcos regime.

No. Martial law even benefited my family and allowed my family to live decent lives. It even gave us the chance to escape poverty.

Yet, I don’t know how I’ll react once Gloria does what people fear her of doing—declare martial law. Actually, she’s already doing the things Marcos did, albeit, devoid of any declaration of martial rule. So, there’s no need to be vigilant because Gloria doesn’t need to proclaim authoritarian rule.

She already has the military and the police in her puny hands. She controls the legislature and the Supreme Court. Now, under an Executive Order, she has consolidated power even in the local governments. If that’s not de-facto martial rule, I don’t know what is.

What we need is action—a direct action against Gloria’s greedy bunch of misfits. Vigilance is not the right call. It should be ouster. If you’re still in the vigilance mode when you’re now living in darkness, you’re just waiting for someone to punch you or kick you in the butt. And you’ll not have the benefit of knowing when that’ll happen.

Despite what everybody is saying that why not wait for 2010, I still believe that it’s still relevant for us to call for Gloria’s immediate ouster. Why? What’s our assurance that she’ll not do another Garci anomaly just to put her chosen one in power? What’s the assurance that she’ll not order another Joc-Joc Bolante to divert billions of pesos from a legitimate project to her campaign kitty? Nothing.

To restore order and regain the trust and confidence of the people in our democratic institutions, we must take action now and depose the cause of our distrust. It is time for us to act.

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About The Author: Patricio Mangubat is a pseudonym. It means "country fight". Yet, the one behind this name is real. He can be briefly described as a long-time activist as well as a communication strategist. He blogs at The New Philippine Revolution.

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20 Responses to “Action, Not only Vigilance, Against Tyranny”

  1. Jon Limjap on September 23rd, 2008 10:25 am

    Sometimes I find it ironic that my views are “as they are” considering that my uncle was thrown to jail during martial law and, in the process of the authorities looking for him, my mother and my grandmother were held against their will too.

    Plus our compound was raided by the METROCOM when I was an infant. A PAF officer whose properties the Marcoses had an interest in lived in the house right beside ours.

  2. cvj on September 23rd, 2008 12:13 pm

    Jon, is it a case of slaves of today becoming the tyrants of tomorrow? After all, you’re now among the privileged in today’s Society (relatively speaking).

  3. Ding G. Gagelonia on September 23rd, 2008 12:47 pm

    Patricio,
    Action versus tyranny yes, but vigilance is the foundation from where righteous, effective action to fight tyranny springs.

    CVJ, the tragic reality is martial law-type disapperances are taking place, in the guise of a domestic war versus terror with domestic estraordinary renditions and black sites in operation. Think Jonas Burgos and the other desaparecidos.

  4. cvj on September 23rd, 2008 1:00 pm

    Ding, as i mentioned in my blog, i get the sense that many otherwise decent folks in the Philippine Middle Class do not care as long as the atrocities are not too blatant [aka ‘garapal’]. It’s the banality of evil once again.

  5. danilo u. ignacio on September 23rd, 2008 2:37 pm

    good day. mawalang galang napo. yeah so many irregularities today, let alone corruption, creep in each and every structure of the government, as well as in the minds of those who derive selfish benefits from it. democracy to the extent is even used today against itself. In utter inconsistency, pGMA has been suppressing both individual and collective freedoms, violating human rights, etc. - the very elements of a healthy democracy - in order to “defend and uphold” Philippine democracy, she says. i myself is a martial law baby. without any iota of mercy, martial law did take the life of our father-a civilian killed while our family was evacuating along with others. i do not know why until then, the military is not yet trained properly so that soldiers could distinguish evacuating civilians from those retreating rebels. what the AFP/PAF recently did here last September 8 against 11 civilians with children is the same as it did to my family in 1974. are we noble and kind-hearted enough then to forgive the repetition of these atrocities with impunity? please no more martial law - not for fear of defending our rights and freedom but for the prevention of further unnecessary lost, hence waste of lives.

  6. Bencard on September 24th, 2008 2:17 am

    the fact that you can freely write and publish this canard is the best argument against it. you are free to conjure up monsters to devour you, but you can only instigate others to violence at your peril.

  7. Patricio Mangubat on September 24th, 2008 9:10 am

    Hi Bencard,

    Creative violence, my friend, is what I’m advocating about. And the people does not need to be instigated. They already are instigated enough to take action. They are just waiting for the right time to do it, my friend. And very soon, you will see it.

    If I remember my vocabulary, “canard” means “a sensational rumour circulated as a hoax”. Can you cite just one fact in this entry that’s a “sensational rumour” and a “hoax”? Without going to the specifics, is’nt it that Gloria populated the Supreme Court with her appointees? Is’nt that she recruited former PNP and AFP chiefs to her cabinet? Is’nt that Gloria made that EO that consolidated power to Malacanang through the DILG? Is’nt that she controls the AFP and the PNP, making them her personal army? And lastly, is’nt that most members of Congress are Lakas-Kampi and at the Senate, the majority are “administration” senators?

    my friend, there’s no monsters to conjure because Gloria already made them. These monsters are in our midst. They don expensive clothes and walk the halls of infamy, yet, are being hailed as excellencies and for what? What are they excellent for? If you still not see these monsters, then, you have a problem,my friend. It’s either you’re living in a cave somewhere in NICA or you’re the joker in Gloria’s Enchanted Kingdom.

    Monsters are not those ugly ogres you see when you watch Cartoon Network. They are those you see on TV news, harping crap and trying to convince us to part our monies for expensive projects that benefit none, but them.

    Yes, I can still write this canard. But I owe it not to Gloria. No. Never. I owe it to the millions who sacrificed their lives against the original tyrant, Marcos. And, Bencard, I owe Gloria nothing. And I blame myself for having been part of the canard which installed her to power.

    God willing, the People will see the glorious sun again shine in this cursed darkened nation. And, when that time comes, I’ll bring my camera and take shots at the Cause of this Nation’s Infamy. And that, my friend, is what I call Creative Violence.

  8. Bencard on September 24th, 2008 9:34 am

    canard because pgma is not now, or ever has been, a “dictator” like marcos. if she is, do you think you will roam free and alive with the kind of venom you are spewing at her? do you think you could have done that in the mid 70’s under marcos? millions? now, now, dont het too carried away “my friend”.

  9. Mikey_Liling on September 24th, 2008 11:49 am

    I agree with Bencard. Why do we keep on creating our own Boogeyman?

    Since 1986, every September 21, the pinoy psyche is regularly being bombarded about the horrors of martial law.

    Unless all the clowns in the Senate who are aiming for the higher office drops dead, martial law will not happen. Not. Ever.

  10. Patricio Mangubat on September 25th, 2008 3:38 pm

    hehe. well, bencard, what’s your description of a dictator? the reason why I can roam around now despite the kind of venom i’m spewing at her is because she really does’nt care about people like me who only write these things just for polemics. but, hey, look at what she did with jonas, those journalists, those “rebels”? or even, those UP studes who now belong to the disappeared?

    in fact, i think, gloria is even better than marcos simply because she can hide her ugly body, but, because of people like us, her slip is now showing.

    again, Bencard, I don’t owe Gloria anything. And don’t give me that crap that there’s no pseudo martial rule, hence, you can still write freely thing. and gloria not a dictator? that’s the point. why allow her to fully transform into one?

  11. Patricio Mangubat on September 25th, 2008 3:40 pm

    and oh, by the way bencard, i did write freely during the marcos time. and those ideas remain very, very sound, the basis of the theorems of revolution which is still being used today.

  12. Patricio Mangubat on September 25th, 2008 3:48 pm

    Gloria is the most vile person who has ever governed this Republic. Because of her, many Filipinos are suffering in silent hunger. Many have died and many will continue to suffer because of her stupid economics and her lack of understanding of the needs of the People.

    And the reason why Gloria is like that? Because she has prostituted herself with the military, the police, the smugglers, the big-time traders and the trapos whose greediness makes even the fattest pig feel shame. Billions of billions of pesos have been lost because of graft and corruption and Gloria has’nt done anything to arrest those who stole the people’s money.

    And now, this disgraced alumnus of Maryknoll wants to become the longest-serving president by choice because she knows that she’ll be thrown to jail like Erap after her term is over. Evil has its end, like all things. And Justice always win.

  13. Bencard on September 26th, 2008 2:28 am

    keep your “polemics” coming, “my friend”. i think there are some here who are actually entertained by them.

  14. danilo u. ignacio on September 26th, 2008 10:58 am

    “Because she has prostituted herself with the military, the police, the smugglers, the big-time traders and the trapos whose greediness makes even the fattest pig feel shame.” Hahaha what a line Pat!

    I think, her kind of Martial Law today, or perhaps the prelude to that is a sophisticated one. Everybody knows most of her advisers and cabinets are retired hawkish generals who participated in the making during the 70s. The only difference between the two is in malice. Her (corporate) dictatorship is insidiously more malicious than her predecessor’s. hence, she can manipulate or influence legislative and legal processes and easily hide or slip away with impunity.

  15. danilo u. ignacio on September 26th, 2008 11:08 am

    Filipinos are always caught unprepared, therefore helpless, by natural calamities despite their knowledge before their coming. Likewise, it would be a tragedy for the Filipinos to stay “deadened” by some’s foolish state of denials and wait instead for pGMA or her successor to mutate into a fully metamorphosed dictator monster next.

  16. Bencard on September 27th, 2008 12:36 am

    so what are you gonna do, danilo? pre-empt the would-be “dictator monster” and start a bloody revolution as patricio seems to advocate? and if and when you win, what’s next. are you sure the next government will not be a dictator in the likes of kim jong il or mahmoud ahmidinajab?

  17. danilo u. ignacio on September 27th, 2008 10:51 am

    you see bencard, if you are not just sitting comfortably on your toilet bowl there, you will see by your own naked eyes, hear by your own stripped-off ears that your pGMA has already declared war in all aspects against every citizen of this us-vassal state since she took the seat, just like her predecessors.

  18. danilo u. ignacio on September 27th, 2008 10:56 am

    you know man, only him whose brain is in his butt would abuse the gut to lump together the likes of kim jong il with mahmoud ahmadenejad.

  19. Bencard on September 27th, 2008 11:53 am

    i heard that before, punk. i may sit on the toilet bowl but i keep the crap there and flush it. some people would rather scoop it and sling it around.

  20. danilo u. ignacio on September 28th, 2008 2:54 pm

    yeah, just like many administrations do while other people, accorded by their comforts, choose to cover artificially their eyes and ears and simulate being blind and deaf.

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