The Office of the Solicitor General has asked the Supreme Court to dismiss the three other petitions questioning the legality of the extension of martial law in Mindanao.
In a manifestation, Solicitor General Jose Calida appealed to the SC to junk the similar petitions filed by the Makabayan bloc led by Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, the group led by former Commission on Elections chairman Christian Monsod and the group of Lumad teachers and students represented by the Free Legal Assistance Group along with the first petition filed by opposition lawmakers led by Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman.
Calida, who represents the respondents from executive and legislative branches, argued that all four petitions have exactly the same arguments and should be dismissed for lack of merit, saying the three other petitions did not raise new issues apart from those already discussed in the Lagman petition.
All petitions alleged that the latest extension of martial law in Mindanao is unconstitutional because the factual bases for the declaration no longer exist.
However, the Solicitor General asserted that rebellion, a key requirement for declaration of martial law under the Constitution, persisted in Mindanao.
The chief state lawyer cited the official report from the Armed Forces that cited “ongoing rebellion of the Daesh-Inspires groups and its local and foreign allies, particularly the Daulah Islamiyah and also of the Communist Party of the Philippines – New People’s Army forces in Mindanao.”
He disclosed that the “Daesh- inspired groups have shifted their strategy from establishing a Wilayat to global insurgency or rebellion” and that “they continue their recruitment and radicalization activities teaching their new members how to launch deadlier attacks and to sow chaos and instability that will extremely endanger the public.”
Calida also cited the attacks by the said groups from January to December last year as well as the “consistent influx of foreign terrorists in the country who are primarily responsible for the conduct of trainings to local terrorist fighters, especially in making improvised explosive devices and motivating locals to serve as suicide bombers.”