15 senators: ‘No compelling reason’ to revoke martial law declaration in Mindanao

Police officers check evacuees from Marawi at a checkpoint by the entrance of Iligan City in of Mindanao on May 24, 2017. President Rodrigo Duterte warned that martial law would be “harsh” and like a dictatorship, after imposing military rule in the south to combat Islamist militants. AFP

(Updated, 10:34 a.m.) Fifteen of 23 senators have filed a resolution supporting President Rodrigo Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao, saying it was “constitutional” and in accordance with the law, and that there was “no compelling reason” to revoke it.

The 15 senators who filed Senate Resolution No. 388 Monday were Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III, Senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, Sherwin Gatchalian, Richard Gordon, Gringo Honasan, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Manny Pacquiao, Joel Villanueva , Cynthia Villar and Juan Miguel Zubiri.

The signatories are all part of the Senate majority bloc. Only two members from the majority group — Senators Grace Poe and Francis Escudero — did not sign the resolution.

READ: Senators open to ‘martial law’ in Mindanao but guarded over rights

The resolution expresses “the sense of the Senate, supporting Proclamation No. 216 dated May 23, 2017 entitled ‘Declaring a state of martial law and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao’ and finding no cause to revoke the same.”

It noted that on May 25, 2017, the Office of the President submitted to the Senate its report on the “factual and legal basis of the proclamation of martial law for Mindanao.”

“Part of the reason for the declaration was the series of violent acts committed by the Maute terrorist group, such as the attack on the military outpost in Butig, Lanao Del Sur in February 2016,” the resolution said.

“The said attack resulted in the killing and wounding of several soldiers and the mass jailbreak in Marawi City in August 2016 which freed and arrested comrades of the terrorist group and other detainees.”

The measure also cited Maute group’s takeover of a hospital in Marawi City, burning of certain government and private facilities and wounding of government troops last May 23.

“They started flying the flag of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria in several areas,’ it pointed out.

Citing Article 134 of the Revised Penal Code, the resolution said, the acts committed by the Maute group were an “open attempt to remove from the allegiance to the Philippine government the part of Mindanao and deprive the Chief Executive of its powers and prerogatives to enforce laws of the land and to maintain public order and safety in Mindanao, hence constitutes the crime of rebellion.”

“Now, therefore, be it resolved, as it is hereby resolved, by way of the sense of the Senate that the Senate finds the issuance of Proclamation No, 216 to be satisfactory, constitutional and in accordance with the law,” it said.

“The Senate hereby supports fully Proclamation No. 216 and finds no compelling reason to revoke the same,” it further said.

Also on Monday, the six-man minority group filed a separate resolution urging Congress to convene in a joint session and deliberate on the martial law declaration and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the entire Mindanao amid continuing fighting between government troops and the Maute group in Marawi City, Lanao del Sur.

READ: Opposition senators want joint session to tackle martial law

The six minority members are Senators Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Bam Aquino, Risa Hontiveros, Antonio Trillanes IV, and Leila de Lima, who has been detained at Camp Crame in Quezon City over drug charges. IDL/rga