In landslide vote, Philippine legislature extends martial law
By
Joseph Santolan
25 July 2017
During a special joint session held on Saturday, an overwhelming majority of both Houses of Congress voted to extend martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus on the southern island of Mindanao until December 31. In all, 245 congressmen and 18 senators voted for the extension, while 18 congressmen and four senators voted against it.
The landslide legislative endorsement of military dictatorship on Mindanao followed a ruling handed down by the Philippine Supreme Court on July 4 by an 11-3-1 vote that the declaration of martial law was constitutional.
Of the handful of dissenting legistators opposed to the extension, most declared that they were not opposed to military rule, but merely sought to compel the executive branch to seek legislative approval renewing the declaration every 60 days.
The Supreme Court ruling and the nearly unanimous legislative rubber stamp have set the stage for the extension of dictatorship on a nationwide scale. There is no legal hurdle to the extension of military rule, all that is lacking is a pretext.
There is no opposition to martial law in any section of the Filipino bourgeoisie. The entirety of the ruling class is madly scrambling to scrap civilian rule and hand the reins to a military dictatorship.
The country is still scarred by the brutal decade-and-half-long military rule of Ferdinand Marcos, and opposition to martial law has been a political shibboleth of long standing. The wholesale embrace of martial law by the Filipino ruling elites is a sharp expression of the crisis of class rule around the globe amid mounting social tensions.
The legislative endorsement, however, does not entail universal ruling class support for…