MANILA, Philippines?The historic joint session of Congress adjourned at 8:15 Monday night without taking a stand on President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?s declaration of martial law in Maguindanao province.

Hours before adjourning, however, the Senate adopted a resolution saying that the martial law proclamation was unconstitutional even after Ms Arroyo lifted it on Saturday.

Speaker Prospero Nograles said most senators and representatives felt that the lifting of martial law had rendered moot and academic a vote by the joint session of Congress on Ms Arroyo?s imposition of martial law.

?We just allowed those who want to speak on the floor to have their time because there is no gag order in Congress,? Nograles said.

It was the first time under the 1987 Constitution that a country?s leader had declared martial law.

The 1987 Constitution mandates a joint session of Congress to approve or revoke a martial law declaration by a simple majority.

?If I was not a presiding officer, I would have not attended today?s session,? Nograles said. The five resource persons from the government led by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita were excused from Monday?s hearing.

Nograles believed that the Supreme Court might also consider the issue moot and academic. Several petitions have challenged the legality of the martial law declaration.

The President lifted Proclamation No. 1959 on Dec. 12, claiming that its objectives had been met. Eight days earlier, Ms Arroyo issued the proclamation on the ground that there was a looming rebellion by followers of the Ampatuans who are accused of masterminding the massacre of 57 people on Nov. 23.

At Monday?s plenary session in the Senate, 18 senators signed the resolution initiated by Sen. Francis Pangilinan, who said the four senators who did not sign the resolution posed no objection to its adoption.

The approval of Resolution No. 1522 by the Senate came before the adjournment of the joint session, which was convened on Dec. 9 to approve or revoke the proclamation.

At the Batasan Pambansa in Quezon City, lawmakers attending the joint session lost the chance to vote against the proclamation, but a number of them refused to be silent about the order.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello refused to concede that the issue over martial law was moot and academic, saying Congress was not given a chance to revoke the ?dangerous proclamation? that was baseless since there was no rebellion to speak of.

Bello warned that Ms Arroyo might proclaim martial law again under the same set of dubious circumstances, especially in light of the issues that could arise from the country?s first stab at automated elections in 2010.

Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri asked that he be the 18th senator to sign the resolution.

?Despite the lifting of martial law, let the resolution send a strong message to Malacañang that the Senate by an overwhelming majority vote considers the martial law proclamation as without factual and legal basis,? Pangilinan said.

The senators had conceded that they would be outvoted by members of the House should Ms Arroyo?s proclamation be put to a vote.

Pangilinan said the resolution ?expressing the sense of the Senate that the proclamation of martial law in the province of Maguindanao is contrary to the provisions of the 1987 Constitution,? would be brought to the House of Representatives, Malacañang and the Supreme Court.

Pangilinan appealed to the high court to still render a decision on the petitions questioning the legality of the proclamation.

?Please don?t turn back on this opportunity to make a decision on the issue,? he appealed to the high court during the news conference.

The Office of the Solicitor General Monday asked the Supreme Court to dismiss for lack of merit the seven petitions against Ms Arroyo?s proclamation.

No need for voting

The senators who signed the resolution were Pangilinan, Zubiri, Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Alan Peter Cayetano, Benigno ?Noynoy? Aquino III, Mar Roxas, Ana Consuelo Madrigal, Jinggoy Estrada, Rodolfo Biazon, Francis Escudero, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Manuel Villar, Antonio Trillanes IV, Pia Cayetano, Gregorio Honasan, Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Richard Gordon.

Only a handful of senators were present at the joint session?Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Pangilinan, Aquino, Zubiri, Biazon and Pimentel.

Lift Proclamation No. 1946

Pimentel said Malacañang should also lift Proclamation No. 1946, which declared a state of emergency in Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat province and Cotabato City. He said this proclamation was equally invalid as Proclamation No. 1959.

Pimentel said that while he welcomed the lifting of martial law in Maguindanao he reckoned that it was just a ?ploy to assuage? residents on the return of peace in the province.

While Congress does not need to vote on the revocation of the proclamation, Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed a motion to approve a resolution indicating Congress? stand that the Proclamation No. 1959 was unconstitutional.

The resolution also sought to declare the proclamation unwarranted and unnecessary after it was established that there was no actual rebellion to trigger its declaration, he said.

Rodriguez said the presence of armed groups, without a clear statement of identity or intention, did not constitute actual rebellion.

?The proclamation itself and four other reports and situationers have not shown an iota of actual rebellion by public uprising and taking arms against the government to remove allegiance therefrom,? said Rodriguez.

Bello disagreed with Biazon that the military deserved any commendation for the martial law incident.

?I think with their arming of private armies which has been the policy over the last two decades, they have contributed to the erosion of the authority of the security agencies of the state. I submit that the AFP leadership is part of the problem, not part of the solution,? he said.

Bello said that the lifting of martial law was not a principled act, but ?a tactical retreat from the very real possibility that the revocation of martial law would be sustained by the two Houses of Congress.?

He noted that Ermita, under questioning by Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, had said that there was no actual rebellion in Maguindanao, contrary to the assertions of Justice Secretary Agnes Devanadera.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros urged her colleagues to either vote to revoke martial law or to speak against it as a joint session.

Hontiveros said Congress should do this to make up for its failure to convene within 48 hours following the proclamation of martial law.

Poisonous tree

Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares warned that the government risked jeopardizing its cases against the suspects in the mass killings in Maguindanao by searching houses and seizing evidence without warrants during martial law.

Colmenares pointed out that the declaration of martial law did not allow the government to conduct warrantless searches.

?What would happen if the Supreme Court says that even under martial law, you need search warrants. What would happen to the evidence, what would happen to the arms that were confiscated without warrants in Maguindanao? Under the fruit of the poisonous tree [doctrine], the evidence would be inadmissible in court,? he said.

Colmenares also wondered where the rest of the more than 2,000 members of the Ampatuans? supposed private army were.

He said that in the martial law report, the President had noted that there were 2,413 civilian volunteer organization members under the Ampatuans? control. But those arrested have not even come close to this number, he added.

Datumanong

Maguindanao Rep. Simeon Datumanong, a relative of the Ampatuans, who has been opposed to martial law, appealed to the President to restore the civilian government in the province.

Datumanong also condoled with the families and relatives of those killed in the gruesome massacre, in which his own kin had been implicated.

Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco said he chose not to look at the constitutionality of the martial law proclamation, but at the benefits it brought to the people of Maguindanao.

Cuenco pointed out that Mindanao officials had supported martial law. With a report from Norman Bordadora