30/01/2026
AN OPEN LETTER TO CONGRESSMAN LEANDRO LEVISTE
⸻
Dear Cong. Leandro Leviste,
“De facto Martial Law,” you say.
In fact, but not in name.
Allow us - those who actually lived through Martial Law - to correct the record.
Not as a debate.
Not as a narrative exercise.
But as a REALITY CHECK.
Martial Law was not a mood.
Not a metaphor.
Not a press line used to deflect controversy.
Martial Law was when you did not get to speak - you were seized.
You did not get to explain - you were detained without charges.
You did not get interviews - you got blindfolds.
You did not get critics - you got disappearances.
There were no rebrands then.
No social media threads.
No “let me clarify my position.”
There was only FEAR.
Had President Bongbong Marcos been anything like his father, your voice would have been silenced long before it reached the airwaves.
You would be in a stockade - muzzled, isolated, forgotten.
Or worse.
So please - stop insulting history.
The closest thing this country experienced to de facto Martial Law was not today.
It was under the Duterte regime -
- Tokhang.
- Extrajudicial killings.
- Red-tagging as state policy.
- Fear as governance.
- Silence enforced by death.
Let’s be blunt: Duterte took more Filipino lives than Marcos Sr. ever did.
The only difference?
- Quieter.
- More excuses.
- Total impunity.
Your parents know this.
Your mother lived through Martial Law.
If she taught you anything, it should have been this:
- Oppression is NOT the same as Inconvenience.
- Accountability is NOT Dictatorship.
- And criticism is NOT Tyranny.
When a man born into wealth, access, and immunity cries “Martial Law” the moment he is questioned,
that is not courage.
➖ That is ENTITLEMENT MISTAKING SCRUTINY FOR PERSECUTION.
So if you truly want to redeem your name, here is some unsolicited but necessary advice:
- Learn history - properly.
- Act in good faith.
- Honor contracts.
- Compete on a level playing field.
- Pay your ₱24 billion fine to the government.
- Detach yourself from inherited privilege.
- Your last name is not a feeding bottle - stop sucking from it.
In short:
- Be a man.
- Be accountable.
- Be a public servant.
Because not every challenge to power is tyranny.
Not every investigation is Martial Law.
And not every criticism is oppression.
Sometimes -
You are not being silenced.
You are simply being asked to be ACCOUNTABLE.
Because accountability is not persecution - it is DEMOCRACY working.
Respectfully,
Those who remember what real Martial Law looks like
⸻
