(From L-R) Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa
DAVAO CITY, Philippines— A multisectoral group here lauded a dissenting Supreme Court Justice and three other SC justices after the High Tribunal upheld the enforcement of Martial Law in Mindanao.
On Tuesday, Supreme Court Spokesman Theodore Te said that 11 justices of the 15-member SC tribunal voted to dismiss the petitions challenging the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao.
Associate Justice Marvic Leonen dissented from the majority ruling, and the three magistrates namely: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, voted partially to limit the coverage of Martial Law in Mindanao, according to the Konsyensya Dabaw convener Mags Z. Maglana.
“We in Konsyensya Dabaw believe that the immediate challenge, aside from looking into filing a motion for reconsideration, is making sure that the ruling does not get used for objectives beyond what the SC ruled was constitutional,” Maglana said.
Maglana said, for instance, the Task 3 of the AFP Operational Directive Number 2 2017 (AFP’s Implementation of Martial Law in Mindanao) is to “degrade the armed capabilities of the NPA.”
For Maglana, such information is “worrisome because there have been no proven connections between the NPA and the jihadists, and in light of efforts to bring the peace process between government and the National Democratic Front back on track.”
“We call on citizens to continue to be discerning and vigilant. As our own history has borne out, the final and most effective check against authoritarianism and militarism are citizens who do not equate citizenship with blind obedience, and are not afraid to stand up to tyranny in whatever form it may present itself,” Maglana said.
Also, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers, in a separate statement on Tuesday, viewed the SC’s decision as “a big letdown and disappointment fraught with even greater dangers as it apparently dilutes the already inadequate constitutional safeguards of the anti-dictatorship 1987 Constitution.”
“Now, more than ever, we call on the Filipino people to remain critical and vigilant. If they can declare an expansive martial law in Mindanao based on alternative and magnified facts as well as exaggerated scenarios, they can do the same for the entire Philippines. It is a dangerous precedent not much unlike the Martial Law cases jurisprudence of the dictator Marcos Supreme Court,” said Atty. Ephraim Cortez, NUPL secretary general pointed out.
The martial law in Mindanao, the group added, will force ordinary citizens to “fend for themselves against abuses and excesses of governmental power no matter in whose name it is invoked.”
The group said they are now mulling for the filing of a Motion for Reconsideration.
Read: Lawyers group ‘weeps’ for Mindanao as SC affirms constitutionality of Martial Law
It can be recalled that the President declared Martial Law over Mindanao for 60 days commencing on May 23 when hundreds of Maute fighters linked to the Islamic State attacked Marawi City.(davaotoday.com)
