Protesters in Iloilo City call for lifting of martial law in Mindanao

Protesters in Iloilo City call for the lifting of martial law, warning of abuses and human rights violations (Photo by NESTOR P. BURGOS / Inquirer Visayas)

ILOILO CITY — Seventy-three-year-old Lolita Sanchez-Mabayag joined on Friday a group of protesters wearing black and holding placards along Bonifacio Drive in Iloilo City.

“I am a victim of martial law and I can you tell how terrifying it was,” she told the Inquirer.

She was among about 30 protesters calling for the lifting of the declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

“Those who did not experienced it and was not victimized by martial law may be welcoming it now,” she said. “But we should heed the lessons of our past.”

In 1985, Mabayag was part of the legal team of protesters holding an anti-Marcos dictatorship rally in Kabankalan in Negros Occidental when soldiers arrested her and three others.

“We were detained at the detachment of soldiers. I was repeatedly slapped and berated,” she said.

Soldiers shouted at her and asked why she was joining rallies when she was a teacher.

“We were afraid that they would shoot us,” she said.

They were released a few days later without charges.

Militant groups raised alarm on what they see as conditioning by the government to expand the martial law coverage from Mindanao to the whole country.

“The government first said the martial law was declared to quell the threat of the Maute Group and the Abu Sayyaf,” said Reylan Vergara, secretary general of the human rights group Panay Aliance Karapatan. “Now they’re saying there’s a threat from foreign terrorists. There script is changing to justify martial law in the whole country.” /atm