There was this demonstration in Clark, the former American base, calling for the declaration of a revolutionary government to be headed by President Duterte. A few days after, the PNP chief admitted that prior to that, he was invited to a meeting about the demonstration but did not make it.
A few days after, there were bombings in Mindanao.
Malacanang then denied it had a role in the demonstration and several top government officials issued public statements that those responsible were criminally liable. One even said that it was a violation of the anti-terror law.
But nobody was charged or invited for investigation. The alleged innocence of Malcanang about the demo appears to be just one of its denials which nobody now believes.
All this gives rise to a feeling of déjà vu.
Way back in the late 60s to the early 70s, all sorts of activism were everywhere. There were demonstrations and bombings here and there. A big shipment of high powered arms were supposedly captured in Palawan, allegedly to be used to topple the government. Nobody blamed anybody except the local communist movement and its armed wing, tne New Peoples Army.
Malacanang then did not need to deny it had something to do with all the chaos everywhere.
President Marcos then suspended the writ of habeas corpus that gave him the power to lock up anybody by mere suspicion. This scared many opposition politicians who showed their true color of being no match to the guts of Marcos.
Actually, that suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was to finally test if the justices of the Supreme Court could be cowed by validating the legality of the suspension. As it turned out, they were readily cowed.
And then Martial Law was declared. The reason was to save the Philippine government from the communist threat as evidenced by daily demonstrations everywhere, the bombings, the arms shipment, etc. President Marcos was sure then that the justices would be cowed again. Indeed, as if on cue, they used the demos, the bombings, the arms shipment, etc., to justify the declaration of Martial Law. With their balls up their necks, they said that the threat to the republic was undeniable.
Is history repeating itself?
If so, those orchestrating the recent events are very poor if not crude copycats. Yet how stupid can we be. The people are lapping things up.**