A THIRD petition has been filed to prod the Supreme Court into compelling senators and congressmen to call a joint session of Congress to review President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.
The petition filed by former senator Wigberto Tañada and Manila Auxiliary Bishop Broderick Pabillo was similar to one filed earlier by former senator Rene Saguisag, which questioned the decision of the Senate and the House of Representatives to issue separate resolutions expressing support for the martial law declaration.
Tañada and Pabillo said the deficiency of not convening a joint session cannot be cured by separate briefings given by the Executive branch and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to both houses of Congress.
“A plain reading of the 1987 Constitution leads to the indubitable conclusion that a joint session of Congress to review a declaration of martial law by the President is mandatory and failure to do so deprives the public of transparent proceedings within which to be informed of the factual bases of the declaration of martial law,” the petition said.
The group also called for a transparent joint session of the two house of Congress.
“Given previous experiences
with martial law, where proceedings with martial law, where proceedings were fraught with secrecy, a public, transparent and deliberative process is necessary to quell the people’s fears against executive overreach,” they argued.
The petitioners also asked the Court to void House Resolution 1050 and Senate Resolution 388, which both expressed support for the declaration of martial law in response to the report submitted by the President as required by the Constitution.
The first petition, filed by lawmakers led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, asked the Court to strike down Duterte’s martial law declaration. In its session Tuesday, the Court ordered the executive branch to answer the Lagman petition. Oral arguments have been set for June 13, 14 and 15.
The Constitution allows the Supreme Court to “review, in an appropriate proceeding filed by any citizen, the sufficiency of the factual basis of the proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the privilege of the writ or the extension thereof, and must promulgate its decision thereon within thirty days from its filing.”
Senator Panfilo Lacson said lawmakers opposing martial law in Mindanao did not understand or simply were against what President Duterte is doing for the country.
Lacson issued this statement a day after the Armed Forces recovered a video showing how the terrorists planned the siege in Marawi City, which broke out on May 23.
“Since the Armed Forces of the Philippines has already declassified the confiscated video showing how Maute planned the Marawi City rebellion, I think I can now disclose that this video footage, among other disclosures in the security briefing made by top security officials of the Duterte administration during our executive caucus, is what made me decide to vote in favor of the martial law proclamation in Mindanao,” Lacson said.
“Further, I conclude that our colleagues who still oppose the martial law proclamation either did not understand the gravity of the security threat posed by the rebellion in the South, or they are simply opposed to anything that President Duterte does or acts on,” he added.
The video, according to AFP chief of staff Gen. Eduardo Año, shows how the bandits plotted to control Marawi City by blocking and occupying roads, as well as laying siege to a school and other structures.
“That video actually is a clear proof that the group of Maute, ISIS, had this intention of not only rebellion but actually dismembering a portion of the Philippine territory by occupying the whole of Marawi City and establishing their own Islamic State or government,” said Año in an interview with ABS-CBN.
He added that the terrorists originally planned to attack Marawi City on May 26 at the start of Ramadan, but had to move it to an earlier date due to the military’s attempt to take out Abu Sayyaf leader and local IS chief Isnilon Hapilon.
The military said they discovered the video in a mobile phone seized during a May 23 raid of a Marawi safe house.
President Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao while he was attending an official meeting in Moscow, Russia. He cut short his trip after learning what happened in Marawi City.
Fifteen out of the 23 senators then filed a resolution supporting the declaration of martial law and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao, saying there was no cause to revoke them.
Aside from Lacson, the 14 other senators who filed Senate Resolution No. 388 were Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senators Juan Edgardo Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Gregorio Honasan, Loren Legarda, Manny Pacquiao, Joel Villanueva, Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri.
The signatories are all part of the Senate majority bloc. Only two members from the majority group—Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero—did not sign the resolution.
Six senators belong to minority group also filed a separate resolution urging Congress to convene in a joint session and deliberate on the martial law declaration and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the entire Mindanao.
The six minority members are Senators Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Leila de Lima.