1017 (pronounced ten seventeen), only four days old, has made an immediate impact on political discourse in the Philippines. Raul Pangalangan from UP law school and Randy David, UP professor and first 1017 martyr, picked over its legal and practical implications in front of a packed auditorium at the Ateneo law school this evening.
I’m not a lawyer, so I hope I don’t misrepresent Pangalangan. Anyway, his main points were these.
• President Arroyo has tried twice before to extend the limits of presidential powers beyond those normally allowed for under the constitution: the first in response to “Edsa 3” (the demonstrations that followed former President Estrada’s arrest in 2001) and after the Oakwood mutiny in 2003.
• In both cases, the legality of her actions went up to the Supreme Court. After Edsa 3, the court basically told the government that there was no legal basis for its action, but that it hoped the government would not do this again. In the ruling that followed Oakwood, the court’s position was that the president had not actually added to her powers, so what was her point? In both instances there were strong dissenting opinions asserting the illegality of her actions.
• To which the administration said “yeah, we know” but we do it because there is a political point to it.
Pangalangan’s presentation made me ponder what some people have been saying along: that Arroyo is at heart a dictator and that 1017 is merely the latest in a pattern of totalitarian behaviour. David’s column yesterday pointed to the “uncanny parallels” between Marcos and Arroyo, which the pic above from the Inquirer site, summarizes quite neatly.
David’s own presentation was a professorial stroll through the circumstances surrounding his arrest on Friday. The highlights were as follows.
• David was in the vanguard of an 18,000 strong group heading down Edsa to the shrine when it was stopped at the Santolan overpass. If that group had made it to the 5,000 or so people who were already demonstrating at the shrine, a critical mass would certainly have been created, which is why the authorities were so concerned to (a) break up the Edsa shrine demonstration, and (b) stop the students at Satolan.
• While he was being arrested David was in the process of complaining to the soldiers when “I remembered something Behn Cervantes told me—never speak to the police in Tagalog. ‘Don't touch me' I said. And they let go.” When in trouble, assert your class.
• Following David's arrest, the police dispersed the remaining crowd with considerable violence. According to David, one labor leader was kicked in the head while on the ground and is now half blind.
• David was not the only martyr to 1017—when he arrived at the station about 35 people were already there, ranging from 7 years old to grandmothers.
• His most memorable remark was “Everyone is aware of the enormous class and economic differences in the Philippines, but you cannot really be aware of them until you taste the judicial system”.
• Mike Defensor phoned David to apologise and to explain he was not “on the list”. “There’s a list?” David said.
Mike Defensor's "You're not on the list" comment seem to show that this government would even go so low as to try to intimidate intelligent people like Randy David. If there was a list---an arrest list perhaps---most probably, Mike Defensor won't reveal it even mistakenly but it slipped his tongue would you believe..
Posted by: Major Tom | February 27, 2006 at 11:58 PM
According to David, Defensor's reply to his question "There's a list?" was, "Yes, there are 8 people on the list"
Posted by: frayed | February 28, 2006 at 12:25 AM
The full list is here: http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=67808
Posted by: torn | February 28, 2006 at 02:42 AM
In fact on Monday police forwarded to the Department of Justice two lists containing "the names of a total of 59 individuals, including members of leftist party-list groups, leaders of the communist party and renegade soldiers, that it said were guilty of rebellion and insurrection 'committed on February 24, 2006,' the day President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo announced she had preempted an attempted coup and declared a state of emergency" -- PCIJ (http://www.pcij.org/blog/?p=670)
Posted by: torn | February 28, 2006 at 02:29 PM
That's quite unbelievable...and amazing at that. They could come up with 59 names in such a short time or perhaps their intelligence sources had become suddenly so hardworking that the list comes out like a flash from some magic tricks. The list could only be spurious I supposed.
Posted by: Major Tom | March 01, 2006 at 12:22 AM
Boy talk about Torn and Frayed in Manila, huh! Damned Fascists. btw major tom, Romeo Capulong is right...this is a recycled list, although it probably does contain 50% of the active Communist Party membership. many of the names are familiar from 30 years. Joma for example, I hear, sometimes can't make it to the bathroom on time...which makes him pretty dangerous as he is yet to make his mark before the Dutch welfare state forces him into retirement...But I think the communist angle really is a bogey since they hardly represent a new threat. Like Ka Roger Rosal, he's been on the run for decades, yet any reporter or talk show host can get a hold of him at will, at least by cellphone. You'd they'dve gotten him by now.
I think the real target is media, perhaps the one uncontrollable force in Philippine society.
Posted by: Rizalist | March 01, 2006 at 05:02 AM
I agree. This whole conspiracy theory is so unconvincing. All these old names and people like "Kim" ... what sort of a list is that? I agree about the media, but think she is also gunning for Anak Pawis and Bayan Muna. She just does not seem willing to accept them as a part of legitimate political landscape--hence all the killings in Tarlac and Samar.
The conept of a "list" is a classic feature of totalitarian societies, widely used in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Posted by: torn | March 01, 2006 at 02:20 PM
you should read antonio abaya's column in the Manila Standard. talk about classic cold war rabid anticommunism. I cannot believe in this day and age there are still ideological dinosaurs writing vintage 1950s redbaiting-type articles in the Phil press.
My other point is: why the emphasis on arresting left wing personalities? it seems to me that most of the noise, protests, troubles, rallies are really coming from the "opposition" of pro-Erap forces and descendants of former marcos cronies. In terms of GMA ousting attempts, the Left is "saling pusa" in a way, with the Right exploiting their warm bodies-- convenient cannon fodder for 'trapo'-led attempts at 'people power'.
Posted by: gonzo | March 02, 2006 at 05:07 PM