WHOM THE GODS WISH TO DESTROY, they first make crazy. Never has that Greek saying taken on the full aspect of prophetic vision than today.

That was how it was during the twilight of martial law, when Ferdinand Marcos’ lieutenants started saying the most atrocious things, and that is how it is today when Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s lieutenants have started saying the most atrocious things. Not the least of them Gary Olivar who last week excused his boss’ non-appearance in a historic joint session of Congress to discuss the merits of her declaration of martial law in Maguindanao by saying she had better things to do. For cheekiness, it ranks up there with such choice quotes as, “What are we in power for?” and “The Philippines is a rich country pretending to be poor.”

I’ll leave the public to react appropriately to Olivar’s statement, preferably in Tagalog, and preferably in text message, which is not confined to printable language. Less atrociously, Arroyo’s allies in the Senate and House of Representatives, chief of them Juan Ponce Enrile, a chief architect of the original martial law, and Prospero Nograles, the chief architect of the prosperousness of the house of Prospero, also dismissed the need for their boss to personally justify what she did, by saying Eduardo Ermita and company were eminently capable of explaining the situation.

They missed the point.

The question was not whether the situation in Maguindanao warranted a declaration of martial law, the question was whether the situation in Mindanao warranted a declaration of martial law by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The situation was incidental, the authorship central.

It would have been another matter entirely if Cory or Ramos or Erap had done so. Then the situation would have been central and the authorship incidental.

Did GMA have the right to blanket Maguindanao under martial law?

No.

Of course GMA lifted it last weekend in response to protests. But she promptly lifted emergency rule too in 2006, which she declared after Gen. Danilo Lim’s “withdrawal of support,” only to have its instruments continue to hold sway in practice. Something to watch out for in Maguindanao. GMA should never have been allowed to declare it there in the first place.

It’s simple. Will you allow the chief of police of a particular district who is the well-known patron, benefactor and beneficiary of a notorious syndicate to investigate that syndicate when it has just executed its enemies gangland-style, or past gangland-style spattering the world with more blood and gore than had ever been seen before? Indeed, more than just allow him to investigate, make him the sole investigator and invest him with more powers than had been seen before, including the power to make the case disappear before the public view? Still indeed, more than just give him the power to make the case disappear from the public view, give him the power to make the person or persons who can bear witness against him for making the syndicate flourish to a point where its bosses have begun to think nothing can touch them, not the law, not public opinion, not human decency, to disappear from the face of the earth?

Something like that happens, and we would howl our heads off at the idiocy of it, at the masochism of it. Yet that was exactly what martial law in Maguindanao was.

The question was never whether martial law in Maguindanao was an excessive response or not, the question was whether martial law in Maguindanao had the appropriate wielder or not. GMA is the patron, benefactor and beneficiary of the Ampatuans, a notorious clan that had just executed its enemies gangland-style, or past gangland-style spattering the Mindanao earth with more blood and gore than had been seen before. For more than a week, martial law gave GMA the power to be the sole arbiter in what happened in Maguindanao, including the power to sew the place up till not a peep, not a squeak, not a soul leaving a body could pass through. More than that, martial law put in GMA’s hands the power of life and death—in the absolutely literal sense—over the people who can swear that she is the source of their life, after they themselves gave her life, encouraging them to think nothing can touch them, not the law, not public opinion, not Allah himself.

Everything that proceeded from that poisoned tree was poisoned fruit. A convoy carrying arms confiscated from the Ampatuans got ambushed, you naturally didn’t believe it. You believed instead that it was not unlike the ambush of Juan Ponce Enrile during the eve of martial law, the one that made a mess of his car while allowing him to miraculously survive, which was the immediate reason Marcos cited for declaring martial law. Had Cory, Ramos, or Erap declared that martial law in Maguindanao, you would not have thought the ambush was designed to destroy evidence.

Just as well, Richard Gordon suggested that the declaration of a state of rebellion in Maguindanao, which is the basis for martial law, was meant to give the Ampatuans a legal loophole, and you believed it. Henceforth, the law may now presume the Ampatuans rebels, with all the lesser penalties it brings, quite apart from all the lofty resonances it rings, rather than just murderers with sadistic tendencies. Had Cory, Ramos and Erap declared that martial law in Maguindanao, you would have given them the benefit of the doubt.

In fact the only person whose presence was really needed in the joint session was GMA. To answer the only intelligent question that could possibly have been raised there about the declaration of martial law in Maguindanao: Why you?

It was the author, not the situation. It was the singer, not the song.

It was the rapper, not the rap.

By Conrado de Quiros