Lawyers’ group: SC ruling leaves people alone to guard vs martial law abuses

Ephraim Cortez, secretary-general of the National Union of Peoples’ Laywers (Photo from the NULP Facebook page)

With the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the proclamation of martial law, people would have to fend for themselves in guarding against abuses and excesses of governmental power, the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) said on Tuesday.

In a statement, the group, which is composed of human rights lawyers, expressed disappointment over the high court’s decision.

“The NUPL legal team shares the well-grounded anxiety that this gargantuan and dubious exercise of an extraordinary Executive power, prematurely applauded by the Legislature by default or sloth, and now arguably sanctioned by the Judiciary, bodes ill not only to those not covered by martial rule and its ‘tasks’ but more so it leaves the ordinary people to fend for themselves against abuses and excesses of governmental power no matter in whose name it is invoked,” the NUPL, through its Secretary-General Ephraim B. Cortez, said in a statement.

“Now, more than ever, we call on the Filipino people to remain critical and vigilant,” Cortez added. “If they can declare an expansive martial law in Mindanao based on alternative and magnified facts as well as exagerrated scenarios, they can do the same for the entire Philippines. It is a dangerous precedent not much unlike ththe Martial Law cases jurisprudence of the dictator Marcos Supreme Court.”

The NUPL is the counsel for the Petitioners in GR No. 231771 (Cullamat Petition), who are composed of Mindanao residents, leaders of peoples’ organizations and militant solons.

The group maintained that there was no factual basis to declare martial law and said they were mulling the filing of a motion for reconsideration.

Like the NUPL, fellow petitioner Renato Reyes, secretary-general of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, expressed disappointment over the ruling.

“The SC has just made it easier to declare Martial Law nationwide, not just in Mindanao,” Reyes said. “It has also given the Duterte government the legal basis to extend Martial Law beyond 60 days.”

“The militarists will be emboldened by the decision,” he added. –Theodore Jason Patrick K. Ortiz /atm