Wipe out remnants of martial law

The violent dispersal by some 300 policemen of about 100 youths protesting the holding of the World Economic Forum shows that remnants of martial law are still lurking behind our democratic government.

The Constitution grants citizens the right to demonstrate but this right is being curtailed by a presidential decree of martial law vintage banning rallies without any permit. The “no-permit-no-rally decree” of the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos is being used to justify the dispersal of demonstrators exercising their constitutional right.