Solicitor General Jose Calida. Presidential Photo (FILE)
The Supreme Court’s (SC) decision affirming Proclamation No.216 declaring martial law in the entire Mindanao “underscores the existence of a real and present rebellion that threaten the lives of residents” in the south, Solicitor General Jose Calida said Tuesday.
“I am grateful to the magistrates of the Honorable Supreme Court for allowing President (Rodrigo) Duterte to perform his prime duty of protecting the Filipino people. As the conscience of our nation, the Supreme Court did not sit idly to watch our country get dismembered. In fact, this decision shows that the Honorable Supreme Court is one with the President in protecting and defending our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Calida said in a statement.
The Supreme Court, voting 11-3-1 on Tuesday, upheld the validity of the martial law declaration in Mindanao.
Eleven Justices affirmed the martial law proclamation in the entire Mindanao while the three–Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa–wants martial law confined in Marawi. Associate Justice Marvic Leonen was the lone dissenter.
Calida also called on the public, including critics of martial law, “to unite and pray that the bloody war in Mindanao will end.”
READ: SC upholds validity of martial law in Mindanao
“It is my fervent hope that stability and lasting peace be attained in the whole Mindanao,’ he added.
Calida was the chief defender of Duterte’s martial law declaration before the Supreme Court, insisting that all elements of rebellion were present in the Maute group’s siege of Marawi. IDL
READ: Calida: Elements of rebellion all present in Marawi siege