Kabataan Partylist strongly rejects the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao.
 
Proclamation 1959 is a dangerous precedent to the impending 2010 elections. Unless it is immediately revoked, its implications to the national elections hover over the Filipino people like a menacing cloud poised to unleash the worst of tragedies in Philippine democracy.
 
The declaration of martial law in Maguindanao is a completely unnecessary move if the Arroyo administration genuinely intends to bring to justice the wrongdoers in the Maguindanao massacre. Its real motives, thus, are subject to suspicion.
 
Martial law in Mindanao is not an answer to police incompetence. The government is bound by law to resolve this matter via due process and to ensure that all constitutional processes prevail. That Malacanang now attests that Maguindanao is in a ‘state of rebellion’ after a handful of arrests and after appointing DILG Sec. Ronaldo Puno as acting officer-in-charge in the province is proof that authorities have exercised ineffectiveness and lack of political will.
 
In declaring martial law in Maguindanao, the government is trying to deflect public outrage against its inability to bring meaningful resolution to the gruesome crime, and its culpability by tolerating the Ampatuans’ warlordism and creation of private armies. It has failed miserably in exercising authority over a monster of its very own making or it is now attempting to distance itself from the same monster by now depicting the Amptuans as ‘outlaws and rebels out of their control.’
 
Furthermore, martial law in Maguindanao cannot hope to resolve rampant warlordism in the province. What the government is now tasked to do with haste is to thoroughly investigate all evidence – especially the unearthing of high-powered weapons and ammunition bearing the labels of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police in the backyard of the Ampatuans. This, if anything, is glaring proof that the Ampatuans had at their disposal the services and arms of the local military and police. 
 
We demand that the Arroyo administration restore all civilian government bodies in Maguindanao.
 
We, likewise, implore members of Congress to exercise their power to revoke Proclamation 1959. Any truly meaningful and sincere resolution to the murders should be done with constraint, sobriety and without political ties. Let us perform our legislative powers for the resolution of the Ampatuan massacre, and not to aggravate it by granting full military powers to elements perceived to have coddled, harbored and allowed violence to run rampant in Maguindanao in the first place.

Lastly, we call on all Filipino youth and the people to remain vigilant against any moves and measures that undermine and attempt to violate our civil liberties. History has taught us to unite against dictatorship, to resist tyranny at all costs.
 
This time, we will unite and we will most definitely resist. As we continue to demand justice for the victims of the Ampatuan massacre and accountability for coddlers of warlords and political armies, we call on all Filipino youth to resound in the call, “Never again to martial law”. ###

-Kabataan Partylist Rep. Raymond Palatino