SolGen seeks dismissal of other petitions vs martial law extension

MANILA, Philippines — Solicitor General Jose Calida has asked the Supreme Court (SC) to junk three other petitions challenging the legality of the extension of martial law in Mindanao.

In a manifestation filed last Friday, he asked the high court to dismiss similar petitions filed by the Makabayan bloc led by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate, the group led by former Commission on Elections chair Christian Monsod and the group of lumad teachers and students represented by the Free Legal Assistance Group along with the first petition filed by opposition lawmakers led by Albay first district Rep. Edcel Lagman.

The SC is set to hear the case in oral arguments today.   

The solicitor general also submitted the confidential report of the Armed Forces that was used as basis for the assailed extension of martial law for another year or until December 2019.

Upon directive of the Court last week, Calida specifically submitted the Department of National Defense’s Monthly/Periodic Reports addressed to Congress on the implementation of martial law from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018.

Contents of the report, however, were not released because they were considered “highly confidential matters involving national security.”

The SC asked the solicitor general to submit the AFP report after Lagman and company claimed that they did not have access to such report on martial law when Congress approved the President’s request for another extension last December.

Calida, who represents the respondents from the executive and legislative branches, has adopted the same arguments submitted in the government’s comment to the petition of Lagman’s group in seeking the dismissal of the three other petitions.

He stressed that all four petitions have exactly the same arguments and should be dismissed for lack of merit, adding the three other petitions did not raise new issues apart from those already discussed in the Lagman petition. – With Artemio Dumlao