Philippine lawmakers ask top court to nullify martial law

Philippine opposition lawmakerspetitionedthe Supreme Court on Monday to review and nullify President Rodrigo Duterte'simposition of martial law in the southern third of thecountry.

The petition filed by six House lawmakers, led by RepresentativeEdcelLagman, said there was no revolution or invasion where public safetyrequired the declaration of martial law and suspension of the writof habeas corpus. It said the proclamation contained "fatalinaccuracies and falsities."

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The petitioners said congressional leaders and the majority oflawmakers allied withDutertewere derelict in their constitutionalduty by refusing to convene a joint session of Congress to votewhether or not to revoke the martial law proclamation.

Dutertemade the declaration May 24after extremists allied with ISISlaid siege toMarawicity. The declarationlasts through mid-July, but could be extended with the consent ofCongress.

The martial law proclamation said the militants openly attemptedto remove that part of the country from its allegiance to thePhilippine government by taking over a hospital, establishingseveral checkpoints in the city, burning down certain government andprivate facilities, and flying the ISIS flagin several areas.

Duterte 'acted alone'

But the petitioners said even the military admitted the conflictinMarawiwas precipitated by troops' operation to neutralize or capture Isnilon Hapilon, a high-profile militant commander. Theyalso said the claim that militants took over a hospital andDuterte'sclaim that a local police chief was decapitated bothturned out to be wrong.

"The president's proclamation of martial law in Mindanao has nosufficient factual basis as it is feebly based on mostly contrivedand/or inaccurate facts, self-serving speculations, enumeration ofdistant occurrences and mere conclusions of fact and law on thepurported existence of 'rebellion or invasion'," the lawmakerssaid.

They said the martial law imposition is "flawed" becauseDuterte "acted alone without the benefit of a recommendation fromDefence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana or from any ranking officer ofthe Armed Forces of the Philippines," as Lorenzana admitted duringcongressional briefings.