Human rights lawyers from the Philippines, South Korea, Japan and Australia on Monday urged the Supreme Court (SC) to continue to rule on the various pending petitions it has filed before them with regards to the government's earlier imposition of Proclamation Number 1959 or the declaration of Martial Law in the province of Maguindanao.

In a press briefing, Dr. Edre Olalia, the deputy secretary general for international relations of the National Union of People Lawyers (NUPL) in the country, said that even though government has already lifted the imposition of Martial Law in the province, it won’t change the constitutional damage it already inflicted.

“The Philippine Supreme Court must continue to rule on the seven pending petitions praying for the declaration of Proclamation No. 1959 as unconstitutional and void.”

“The lifting of PP 1959 imposing martial law and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the province of Maguindanao does not change the fact that a mockery of the 1987 Philippine Constitution has been deliberately committed by executive officials led by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the issuance of PP 1959 without factual basis at all,” he said.

Olalia, at the same time, warned that if the SC will fail to make a ruling on the matter, this will set a precedent to the present leadership or to the next leaders of the country to again imposed martial law without factual of legal basis at all.

“Martial Law may be imposed again on vague and invalid grounds if the Supreme Court will not rule on the issue of sufficiency of the factual basis of PP 1959 due to its formal listing last Saturday,” he said.

For his part, Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) governor for Southern Luzon, Atty. Amador Z. Tolentino, Jr., said it’s very important for the Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno to immediately resolve the matter because the implications to such a declaration is huge.