17 groups challenge ‘1017’

Various groups, among them 17 lawyers’ organizations, a newspaper publisher, a former vice presidential candidate and a university professor, challenged yesterday the constitutionality of President Arroyo’s Proclamation 1017, which placed the country under a state of national emergency.

Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban said the Supreme Court as a whole will tackle the petitions today because of the urgency of the issue.

"We will take it up (today) in our regular en banc session," Panganiban said. "The first petition was filed by Prof. Randy David and it was raffled off. There is a sense of urgency to resolve the controversy."

Apart from David, the other petitioners are 17 lawyers’ organizations under the umbrella of Alternative Law Groups Inc., The Daily Tribune led by publisher Niñez Cacho-Olivares, and former vice presidential candidate Loren Legarda.

The lawyer for Alternative Law Groups Inc. said Proclamation 1017 must be struck down and declared void because Mrs. Arroyo has "illegally exercised martial law powers" and "mangled" Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution.

"All democratic rights guaranteed and protected under the Constitution are still in place and could not be quelled by the Proclamation," lawyer Marlon Manuel, ALG spokesman, said.

"Therefore, the proclamation has no effect on the Bill of Rights, specifically freedom of speech, of expression or of the press, and the right of the people to peaceful assembly and to petition the government for redress of grievances. Thus, the President cannot suppress people power with a superfluous and illegal edict such as Proclamation 1017."

Manuel said Malacañang could have violated the Constitution through the issuance of Proclamation 1017 because there are no clear threats to national security to merit the declaration of a state of national emergency.

"Based on jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has decided that the term ‘national emergency’ pertains to threats from external aggression, calamities or national disasters, but not strikes unless it is of such proportion that would paralyze government service," he said.

"We do not see any clear and present threats either from external aggression, calamities, national or paralyzing strikes that would justify such declaration.

"Proclamation 1017 also did not give extra powers to President Arroyo to lift an iron hand in what she did with the raiding of The Daily Tribune, the arrest of rallyists, and the lining up of 200 other individuals for arrest," Manuel said.

Olivares, in a 14-page petition filed through her lawyer, former senator Rene Saguisag, asked the SC to declare Proclamation 1017 unconstitutional.

Olivares also asked the high court to order Philippine National Police chief Director General Arturo Lomibao and Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to "return to petitioners whatever it was they stole from petitioners, and pull out the PNP team guarding the premises of The Daily Tribune as a possible source of destabilization, as it adversely affects business, and to pay damages in a proper case by reason of respondents’ wrongful and cavalier acts."

"It is respectfully prayed that Proclamation 1017 be declared unconstitutional on its face or as applied to petitioners in the specific context of this case," read the petition.

Since even a law cannot abridge the freedom of the press, it should follow that a mere proclamation of a state of emergency cannot abridge such freedom by closing down a newspaper, Cacho-Olivares said.

University of the Philippines professor David, in a 25-page petition filed through lawyer Harry Roque Jr., asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order against Proclamation 1017.

David’s co-petitioners are Roque, Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada II, Ronald Llamas, Akbayan first national president; and lawyers Joel Ruiz Butuyan, Roger Rayel, Gary Mallari, Romel Bagares and Christopher Bolastig.

David’s group also asked the SC to stop Mrs. Arroyo, as commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, the Department of National Defense headed by Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., the Armed Forces led by Gen. Generoso Senga and PNP chief Lomibao and their agents from implementing the state of national emergency.

The urgency of resolving the constitutionality of Proclamation 1017 is underscored by the fact that it effectively imposes martial law without following the Constitution, Roque argued.

Legarda denounced Proclamation 1017 as a "direct assault" on human rights and freedom.

"But the Filipino people and the media will not be cowed for we cannot allow poorly-disguised martial law conditions to continue prevailing in the country, just to prop (up) the illegitimate Arroyo-De Castro regime," she said.

Mrs. Arroyo and Vice President Noli de Castro must both resign to pave the way for the peaceful and constitutional resolution of the crisis, she added.

On the other hand, opposition members of the House of Representatives will file criminal charges against Lomibao and the policemen who arrested Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.

House Minority Leader Francis Escudero said they will sue Chief Inspector Rene Corpus, leader of the police team that picked up Beltran and his wife, Rosario at Francisco III subdivision in Muzon, Bulacan on Saturday.

"The charge (of) inciting to sedition is punishable (with) below six years’ imprisonment, where members of Congress (like Beltran) are exempt from arrest," he said. "We will be filing charges against those who arrested him."

Meanwhile, Iloilo City Rep. Rolex Suplico said Proclamation 1017 has not suspended the Bill of Rights.

Escudero and Suplico, who are both lawyers, also cited the illegal basis for Beltran’s arrest, since it was based on a 1985 warrant for violation of the anti-subversion law, a provision that has since been repealed by Congress.

Criminal charges against the PNP could range from illegal arrest to arbitrary detention, Escudero said. — With reports fromDelon Porcalla, Christina Mendez, Katherine Adraneda