Martial Law

The country stood still and seemed stymied when a December 4, 2009 Proclamation No. 1959 imposed martial law in Maguindanao, a province in central Mindanao. Then, that proclamation was lifted eight days later. It was a proclamation of a state of martial law and a suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao except for identified areas of the MILF as referred to in the GRP-MILF agreement on general cessation of hostilities.

In generic parlance, martial law is rule by the military, typically imposed during wartime. Suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus means warrantless arrests & warrantless searches, among others. But, the warrantless arrests are good for three days only and after which charges should be filed, otherwise the detained should be realeased. After martial law for twenty years during the Marcos regime when most of our civilian agencies like our national legislature was padlocked, our 1987 constitution has redefined how martial law should be in the Philippines. The old martial law power which was upheld by the Supreme Court of that era allowed the President of the Philippines to legislate by decrees, create military commissions or courts martial to try both members of the military and civilian offenders for specified offenses.

So, the currently binding 1987 redefinition (which is a reaction to that martial law power of the Marcos era) in our Constitution says that martial law can only proclaimed “ in case of invasion or rebellion, when the public safety requires it…” This same 1987 martial law provision has also placed limits to how martial law should be : martial law should have a time limit of sixty days, congress reviews the proclamation and has the power to revoke which cannot be overturned by the president and of course, the Supreme court can review and as well may nullify as void such proclamation.

But then again, there will be many ways of subverting these limits. For example, the president can extend the period to more than sixty days. The Philippine constitution specifically says that both houses of Congress should be voting jointly or as one to revoke a proclamation of martial law. In joint voting, the lower house which has a membership of 268 can outvote the 23 members of the Senate or the 18 members of the Senate who have already expressed that they are against the proclamation. For now, we have yet no idea how the lower house will vote. There were fears, based on past tendencies, that the ruling majority party in the lower house will not revoke the proclamation. Now, after the lifting, Congress could just cancel the joint session of both Congress which was convened to review the factual basis of the proclamation. But, the citizens are expecting that the Supreme Court will pass judgment on whether the martial law proclamation (# 1959) is not unconstitutional as the issue is laden with public interest and for the jurisprudence that will be a very useful precedent to provide guidance. This is the first time martial law was declared after the 1987 constitution came into effect and the ruling that will be rendered will definitely define the limits of the president’s prerogative to declare martial law.

The Arroyo regime has submitted a report of the factual basis of the proclamation to both houses of Congress as required by our Constitution. The report starts with a presentation of the government findings on the Maguindanao massacre which is interspersed with the gruesome pictures of the unspeakable tragedy and finally zeroes in on its description of a state of rebellion in Maguindanao by presenting as initial evidence the military and police reports of the presence of arms and private armies. Citizen’s blogs were saying that if existence of the private armies and arms in Maguindanao is the proof of rebellion and the basis for the proclamation of the state of martial law, many areas could potentially be covered which is scary, to say the least.