Palace knew Marawi plot ahead of attack

The Duterte administration knew that members of the Islamic State-inspired Maute group were out to occupy Marawi City five days before the actual attack happened on May 23.

Exactly a month before, one of its leaders, Abdullah Maute, deployed some of his operatives to carry out bombings, car thefts and assassinations of state troopers in Marawi and the nearby cities of Iligan and Cagayan de Oro.

These were some of the information the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) provided the Supreme Court on Monday in a bid to convince it to disregard the petitions questioning the constitutionality of President Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

The state’s primary law firm submitted its consolidated comment on the three separate petitions a day before the start of the three-day oral arguments set by the 15-member tribunal on the issue.

Solicitor General Jose Calida argued that the petitions were “procedurally defective” as the petitioners failed to cite under which provision of the Rules of Court the petitions were filed.

“Procedurally, what they did was wrong. They just mentioned Section 18, Article VII [of the 1987 Constitution]. That’s not the procedure. That’s the Constitution,” Calida told reporters.

“They did not say what proceeding they are filing or under what rule. Is it certiorari? If it’s a certiorari [petition], they did not allege grave abuse of discretion. So what type of animal are they talking about?” he said.

In its comment, the OSG insisted that Mr. Duterte’s Proclamation No. 216 placing the entire Mindanao under military rule and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus was backed by factual reasons and information provided by the military.

“[We] invite this honorable court to uphold President Duterte’s timely and decisive action, and be his partner in protecting and defending the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the OSG said.

The OSG also dismissed as mere hearsay the news reports which showed that some of the incidents that the President used as basis in declaring martial law were erroneous.

Meanwhile, former Bayan Muna Rep. Neri Colmenares, the lawyer of one of the petitioners, and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman said they would oppose the move of the OSG to hold the oral arguments in an executive session.

“Only real issues concerning national security should be covered by executive privilege. Otherwise, the public should know it,” Colmenares said after attending the preliminary conference in the Supreme Court.