Militants protest SC ruling on martial law declaration

Members of militant group Anakbayan Cebu hold a rally in downtown Cebu City to oppose the extrajudicial killings and the martial law in Mindanao.
(CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

WAVING traditional red flags and laying black cardboard coffins on Colon Street, some 20 members of the militant group Anakbayan staged a rally yesterday morning to protest the Supreme Court’s ruling legalizing President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.

Niño Olayvar, coordinator of Anakbayan Cebu, led the rallyists in expressing fear that martial law may extend to the Visayas and the whole country.
“Sa una pa naa nay mga hulga nga i-expand ang martial law sa Visayas and tibuok nasod. Karon ila na nang ma-justify,” Olayvar told Cebu Daily News.

(There were already threats that martial law will extend to the Visayas and the rest of the country. With the Supreme Court’s ruling, they can now justify its extension.)

President Rodrigo Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao last May 23 after the Maute terror group seized Marawi City. Until now, government troops are still pursuing the remaining members of the militant group still holed up in Marawi.

Last Tuesday, the SC voted 11-3 in favor of martial law in Mindanao.

Eleven Justices affirmed the martial law proclamation including Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Jose Mendoza, Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Francis Jardeleza, Samuel Martires and Noel Tijam.

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa want martial law to be confined only in Marawi.

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen was the lone dissenter.

Olayvar said they also want the government to stop carrying air strikes in Marawi, saying our soldiers and innocent civilians are either killed or injured by the indiscriminate bombings.