Solgen asking Duterte to violate Constitution – lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines - Opposition Rep. Edcel Lagman of Albay yesterday accused Solicitor General Jose Calida of deceiving and asking President Duterte to violate the Constitution.

Lagman said Calida “inveigled the President to violate the Constitution by suggesting that extreme hypothetical situations can warrant the imposition of martial law outside the restrictive parameters of the Charter.”

Lagman was responding to the solicitor general’s statement that Duterte could use his anti-drug campaign as basis for imposing martial rule.

The President himself has said he does not have to follow the Constitution and he could ignore the Supreme Court if martial law is the only means to save the nation from illegal drugs.

Lagman reminded both Calida and Duterte that the Constitution has strict parameters for the imposition of martial rule.

“It can be imposed only if there is invasion or rebellion. There is another parameter – if public safety requires such imposition,” he said.

Lagman said there are no other situations where the President is authorized to declare martial law.

He said the nation’s leader could deal with those situations using other powers he has under the Constitution.

Lagman pointed out Congress or the Supreme Court has the authority to invalidate a martial law declaration.

The President cannot set aside a decision by Congress or the Supreme Court to scrap such declaration, he added.

“The limitations mandated by the Constitution on the declaration of martial law are intended to foreclose contrived and abusive reasons rationalizing authoritarian rule,” Lagman stressed.