(Eagle News) — Citing technicalities supposedly committed and other supposedly legal grounds, Solicitor General Jose Calida on Monday urged the Supreme Court to dismiss the first petition against the one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao.
In his comment filed before the High Court, Calida said that in the first place, the group led by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman “committed a terrible blunder” when they did not attach in their SC petition challenging the extension the joint resolution of Congress that approved the same.
According to Calida, this was necessary as this was where “they pin their allegation of arbitrariness.”
“Moreover, they trace the arbitrariness to the absence of an actual rebellion. Petitioners are unmindful that the Supreme Court already declared in Lagman v. Medialdea the existence of rebellion in Mindanao. Such fact is now beyond question,” Calida added.
According to Calida, “What the petitioners should have done is to show that the rebellion has been completely quelled.”
“They have not done so,” he said.
In the first place, he said the Supreme Court “cannot wield its power to issue injunctive relief to contravene the Commander-in-Chief powers granted to the Executive by the Constitution.”
“The Supreme Court may only review the factual basis thereof, which power is not even automatic, as it can only be exercised upon initiative of any concerned citizen,” he said.
On Monday, the National Union of People’s Lawyers filed a second petition challenging the extension of martial law in Mindanao.
The NUPL also argued that there was an absence of an “actual rebellion” that warranted such a declaration.
President Rodrigo Duterte had cited existing threats in requesting for the extension that was subsequently approved by Congress.