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[av_heading heading=’Arrogant overreach’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”][/av_heading]
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Saturday, June 17, 2017
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AFTER Camp Aguinaldo spokesman Colonel Edward Arevalo warned that the military would exercise an alleged “right to censure”, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) head Rodolfo Salalima announced impending arrests for “cyber sedition.”
It must be clear by now: Whether in Marawi, Mindanao or Manila, we’re all unsafe from martial law’s effects on basic rights. And nowhere is this more obvious than the internet and the basic rights we enjoy online and offline.
These threats by the military and DICT don’t strike fear at the heart of terrorists. They dampen civic engagement and attempt to negate the public’s right and duty to see to it that martial law is required, that martial law is actually aimed at the terrorists, and that martial law is not being implemented against the public.
The military and the DICT must not overstep their bounds. Censorship, whether prior restraint or subsequent punishment, does not help combat terrorists. The military should revisit its claim of a “right to censure.” It is an invention with no legal provenance or constitutional basis.
Netizens wonder if there would be network shutdowns under martial law. Network shutdowns could isolate and disconnect Mindanao from the rest of the country and the world. Think of the effects this would have on business, commerce, education, governance and other aspects of daily lives. It is not farfetched that the government would use this, too, if the “online noise” of widespread criticism becomes intolerable to them.
If there’s any event and place where the public would understand a network shutdown, it is this incident in Marawi City from the very start. Based on “practice”, shutting down all communications there would deprive the terrorists any means to communicate among themselves and the outside world. It is now a virtual ghost town, with most of its 200,000 inhabitants already transformed into evacuees. But this appears to be impossible. Because it would affect military operations, too, the coordination between the Commander-in-Chief in Manila and the ground forces in Marawi, and media reportage that has been so kind to the military.
Filipinos must be vigilant and jealous of the rights they enjoy, offline or online, against any arrogant overreach by the military and government.
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