A STATE of emergency is not the same as a declaration of martial law and having argued the point among themselves, Malacañang legal luminaries have decided to end their cat-and-mouse game and come clean: Yes, a state of emergency is possible.
If there is a serious threat to peace and order or if oil prices soar too high, President Arroyo may impose a state of emergency.
The problem is that the line dividing emergency powers and martial law is awfully thin. Those who have experienced martial law do not want anything related to it.
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If there is a serious threat to peace and order, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, better armed, better trained, and numerically superior to any rebel group can take care of such threat without resorting to emergency powers.
That has always been the proud boast of military generals and those in the police as well.
Would emergency powers be needed in an economic crisis caused by uncontrolled price increases of oil products?
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Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, who claimed he prepared a state of emergency document without consulting the President, the total independence of Cabinet members being welcomed these days, said that, if approved, this document would authorize government to take over vital industries such as oil and power companies.
How will government control of, say, an oil company help tame an economic crisis? That question caught a group of economists and bankers by surprise.
One ventured to say that the purpose of a government take-overs would be to lower prices, but he could not see how this could be done. The only way to do it is to sell gasoline and cooking gas at prices lower than production costs.
The consumers will benefit. The oil company will go bankrupt. Since the Gonzalez document states that take-over are "without compensation," the government has nothing to lose. It’s sweet to run someone else’s business without assuming any fiscal responsibility.
