‘Kababayans’ held martial law protest in New York City

“Hey, ho-ho, martial law has got to go away-hey, ho-ho, martial law has got to go away,” the demonstrators chanted repeatedly.

‘Kababayans’ in the City of New York plan to continue their anti-martial law rallies until the President withdraws martial law over Mindanao.

After Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte  declared martial law in the entire island of Mindanao, anti-martial law protesters took to the streets in Woodside, Queens, New York calling for the immediate lifting of martial law in Mindanao.

Bernadette Ellorin of Bayan USA said in an interview by Balitang America: “The biggest fear right now is history has already shown us that martial law leads to egregious human rights abuses…killings, abductions, torture, displacement, bombings… so the Filipino people don’t want that anymore.”

Labor rights lawyer Attorney Felix Vinluan, one of the protestors in the demonstration, believes President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao is an overkill to what he calls a “local peace and order situation” in Marawi City.

Vinluan said that the martial law declaration should be challenged in Philippine courts and must be stopped before it becomes a nationwide martial law.

However, not all of our ‘kababayans’ in the big apple are against the martial law, or the president itself.

One example of them is Ali Dimaporo, he said “We believe in you President Duterte, so we know you’re very extra cautious with the martial law that you’re trying to have right now, ang hope lang is sana nga, it is for the good of the people.”

Another one, Rusty Corpuz, said “Ang gobyerno ‘di magpapatalo yan, kung kontra ka sa gobyerno kailangan mawala ka, kung kailangan patayin ka nila, patayin ka nila, ganun lang yun.” “Ay eto hindi ako pabor sa mga ‘yan (demonstrators,) mga bata ‘yan, anong malay nila sa martial law, may sumusuporta lang sa mga ‘yan,” he added.

“I cannot blame all those who suffered during martial law, and if they have ideas na parang bumabalik sa kanila but at the same time we want to trust the president,” said Duterte supporter Omar Ali. Although, he is against declaring martial law all over the country if it gets to that.

source: kickerdaily