(UPDATE – 6:45 a.m., June 10, 2017) Mindanao activists and human rights advocates on Friday filed a petition before the Supreme Court opposing the declaration of Martial Law covering all of Mindanao.
Before the day ended, four residents of Marawi City filed their own petition asking the high court to conduct a judicial review of the factual basis for President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law and to declare Proclamation No. 216 “null and void for being unconstitutional.”
Respondents in the petition filed by the Mindanao activists include President Rodrigo Duterte, Executive Secretary Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief-of-Staff Lt. General Eduardo Año and Philippine National Police Director-General Ronaldo Dela Rosa.
The petitioners argued that there were no incidents similar to what was happening in Marawi City simultaneously occurring in the rest of the 27 cities and 422 municipalities of Mindanao.
The Marawi standoff involves government security forces pitted against a band of marauding terrorists aligned with the Maute Group.
The petitioners included five local Mindanao leaders, namely Lumad leader Eufemia Campos Cullamat, peasant leader Virgilio T. Lincuna of KMP, Ateliana U. Hijos of Gabriela, trade union leaders Roland A. Cobrado, Carl Anthony D. Olalo and union leader Roy Jim Balanghig of the striking Shin Sun Tropical Fruits Inc., whose picket line was allegedly broken up by the Philippine National Police (PNP) June 2, after Martial Law was declared.
They were joined by leaders from various human rights and activist organizations and partylist groups: Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes, Jr., Karapatan Secretary General Cristina E. Palabay, SELDA Chair Marie H. Enriquez, Act Teachers’ Representative Antonio L. Tinio, Gabriela Women’s Party Representative Arlene D. Brosas, Kabataan Party-List Representative Sarah Jane I. Elago, artists Mae Paner, Gabriela Krista Dalena and Anna Isabelle Estein, NUSP spokesman Mark Vincent D. Lim, Anakbayan chair Vencer Mari Crisostomo and Gabriela deputy secretary general Jovita Montes.
The petitioners were represented by the National Union of People’s Lawyers through attorneys Neri Colmenares, Edre Olalia, Julian Oliva, Ephraim Cortez, Ma. Cristina Yambot, Maneeka Sarza, Josalee Deinla and Katherine Panguban.
The petitioners argued that Proclamation No. 216 covering the whole of Mindanao “was unwarranted, unjustifiable, and wholly out of proportion” to the threat posed by the Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups because, aside from the violence in Marawi, “respondents failed to prove sufficient factual basis that rebellion or at the very least incidents similar to that in Marawi are simultaneously occurring in other parts of the island.”
The groups also raised questions on the factual basis of Martial Law saying that “the insertion of the words “other rebel groups” in Proclamation No. 216 is dangerously vague and unsubstantiated”, with respondents failing to cite who these groups are and the activities they are undertaking that constitute rebellion.
“Presuming without conceding that there exists actual rebellion in the entire Mindanao, Respondents failed to provide sufficient factual basis that such rebellion has reached an extent that public safety requires the imposition of martial law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus,” the Petitioners said.
They also claimed that Martial Law in Mindanao endangers the peace process being undertaken by the government with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. Citing reports from Karapatan, the imposition of Martial Law has also been blamed for causing human rights violations, aerial bombings and intensified military operations even in areas far from Marawi.
On the other hand,
The petition of Norkaya Mohamad, Sittie Nur Dyhanna Mohamad, Noraisah Sani and Zahria Muti-Mapandi, who are represented by former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod and members of the Alternative Law Groups, is the fifth to challenge Proclamation 216 or ask that Congress be compelled to meet in joint session to debate the matter.
The respondents of the petition are Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, acting Interior Secretary Catalino Cuy, Armed Forces chief Eduardo Ano, PNP chief Ronald dela Rosa and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon.
The four Marawi women said they were “exhausted” and “weary” over the uncertainty of returning home and posed what they said was “the transcendental question that begs to be asked of the government”:
“At any time from the declaration of martial law on 23 May 2017 to the present, was Marawi, much more any part of Mindanao, occupied in a permanent manner by the ‘rebels’ and removed from allegiance to the Philippine State?”
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