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[av_heading heading=’Lagman seeks reversal of SC martial law ruling ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY ADRIAN STEWART CO
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MANILA – An opposition congressman appealed before the Supreme Court (SC) to reverse its decision with regards to President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao.
Albay’s Rep. Edcel Lagman said the ruling weakened the SC’s power to fully review the factual sufficiency of Proclamation 216.
The high court claimed a lack of competence to ably determine the facts on the ground regarding the existence of rebellion and deferred to the President’s logistical superiority to gather and evaluate intelligence information.
“The decision also granted excessive leeway to the President’s exercise of emergency powers and conceded the applicability of presumptions of regularity and good faith in favor of the President,” added Lagman.
Lagman was one of the petitioners who asked the high court to nullify Duterte’s Proclamation 216 declaring martial law in Mindanao claiming that there is no factual basis for it.
“This defeatist stance erodes the SC’s prerogative not only to sanction the President’s failure to pass the test of factual sufficiency for his declaration or suspension, but also to protect the citizens’ civil liberties from transgression as a result of an improvident and unconstitutional exercise of martial law powers by an errant President,” Lagman said.
He added: “It must be understood that the President’s so-called logistical or tactical superiority is countervailed by the Supreme Court’s ascendency as the final arbiter of justiciable questions.”
In an 82-page decision penned by Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo and concurred by 10 other justices, the high court declared Duterte’s martial law in Mindanao as constitutional.
Duterte declare martial law on May 23 from Moscow, Russia after government troops clashed with the Maute terrorist group in Marawi City./PN
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