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Dashboard (02/07/18)

Hyundai donates vehicles to Gawad Kalinga

FIVE Hyundai vehicles were donated on Jan. 22 to Gawad Kalinga (GK) by the corporate social responsibility arm of Hyundai Asia Resources, Inc. (HARI), called HARI Foundation, Inc.

This is according to HARI, which said it has renewed its commitment to support GK’s social entrepreneurship program. Three of the vehicles will be used to transport from farm to market the products of GK communities. The two others are intended to support GK’s Kusina ng Kalinga, a platform that addresses hunger and malnutrition among children in public schools, on the streets, and in conflict areas.

HARI said the turnover of the vehicles capped the 5th Global Social Business Summit held at the Hyundai Center for Green Innovation in the GK Enchanted Farm in Angat, Bulacan. The company added its foundation has been supporting for more than a decade GK’s mission of ending poverty for five million families by 2024.

Ford DSFL
Personalized instructions guarantee better results.

Ford expands driver training program

ITS Driving Skills for Life (DSFL) training program has reached an estimated 20,000 drivers since 2008, Ford Philippines said in a news release.

The company added that, for the first time last year, it conducted DSFL in Pampanga, Batangas, Cebu and Davao, as well as in several schools in Metro Manila. Together with program facilitator Tuason Racing School, Ford said it has also increased the number of hands-on driving sessions to ensure that participants are able to apply their learning from the classroom sessions.

“2017 has been a great year for our DSFL program and we are happy to bring it outside Metro Manila to educate and train more drivers on the proper driving skills while on the road. Seeing the growing number of participating drivers and partner-institutions inspires us to make the DSFL program more inclusive for our road safety advocacy,” said EJ Francisco, AVP for communications at Ford Philippines.

Ford said it recently trained more than 700 Uber drivers. The effort was part of DSFL’s strengthened focus on training more drivers of public utility vehicles.

Phoenix gas station

Phoenix opens 100th updated station

PHOENIX Petroleum said it opened on Jan. 22 its 100th service station that features its new look. The station is located on West Service Road in Muntinlupa City.

Phoenix said it has been upgrading its stations nationwide to “reflect the company’s aspiration of becoming the next-generation fuel company catering to the needs of the next-generation drivers.”

“The new look of our stations is just the start of our improved products and services to our customers as we set the tone for the future. Our goal is to exceed customer expectations and engage with the community we are part of through our improved stations,” said Phoenix Petroleum COO Henry Fadullon.

Phoenix said it operates more than 500 stations nationwide. It added it has also entered the convenience retailing business with its acquisition of Philippine Family Mart, and is set to start a joint venture with TIPCO Asphalt of Thailand and PhilAsphalt.

LRMC to add more LRT-1 trains

LIGHT RAIL MANILA Corp. (LRMC) is set to add more trains to the Light Rail Transit Line-1 (LRT-1) this year.

LRMC President and Chief Executive Officer Juan F. Alfonso said the company is planning to add 15 more light rail vehicles (LRV) by late 2018.

“A big portion of our trains are generation 1. We’re starting the rehabilitation of generation 2 trains that will add about another 15 trains in the system,” he told reporters on Tuesday.

This would allow the company to deploy more LRVs to accommodate an expected increase in passengers once the LRT extension to Cavite starts operating by 2021.

“Because for the Cavite Extension, the forecast of that is about 800,000 [passengers] or higher so for that, we’ll have JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) [which will add] around 30 plus coaches,” Mr. Alfonso said.

The company currently has 109 LRVs with a total capacity of 500,000 passengers.

LRMC turned one of its LRVs into a “Love Train” decorated for Valentine’s Day. The Love Train aims to promote environmental awareness.

“We’ll keep it because it’s like a wallpaper on the train, so we’ll keep the theme so when it fades, that’s when we’ll change it,” Mr. Alfonso said.

LRMC’s P500-million station improvement project, which started in 2016 with the expansion of its Doroteo Jose station, is set to finish by next year. — Anna Gabriela A. Mogato

New IPO Guidelines for patent examination

In line with its goal to deliver timely and quality patents, utility models and industrial designs, the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPO) recently released the Manual for Patent Examination Procedure (MPEP). The MPEP describes in detail certain procedures and practices on matters of patent law and interpretation and serves as a comprehensive guide for administrative officers and patent examiners of the IPO and the general public.

The MPEP is divided into two (2) parts.

Part 1 of the MPEP outlines the procedures for the filing of papers with the IPO, formality examination of applications, publication, granting and post-grant of patents, registration of utility model and industrial designs, Patent Cooperation Treaty procedures, and the Community Review Process. Substantive requirements of these procedures are explained in Part 2.

At the same time, the IPO released the following Examination Guidelines on inventions that deal with specialized emerging technologies:

GUIDELINES ON THE EXAMINATION OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED INVENTIONS
These guidelines are meant to assist patent examiners in assessing whether patent applications involving the fields of information communications technology (ICT) and computer-implemented inventions (CII) are patent eligible. ICT refers to the totality of electronic means to assess, create, collect, store, process, receive, transmit, present, and disseminate information. On the other hand, CII are inventions that involves computers, computer networks, or other programmable apparatus whereby prima facie one or more of the features of the claimed invention are realized by means of a program or programs. In particular, the ICT and CII guidelines aim to equip examiners with the ability to determine whether the combination of non-patentable subject matters with technical means or hardware in ICT related patent claims constitute “technical character.” Having technical character is an implicit requirement under the Intellectual Property Code in order for an invention to be patentable.

GUIDELINES ON THE EXAMINATION OF BIOTECHNOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS (BIOTECH GUIDELINES)
The Biotech Guidelines were formulated to address technical and ethical issues that the IPO has encountered with respect to patent applications involving the production, modification, and utilization of biological materials. Aside from providing important definition of biotechnology-related terms in the context of patent law as well as examples of eligible and non-eligible subject matters, these guidelines put together the best practices when examining biotechnological inventions, and guide the examiners to the most appropriate approach to most cases.

REVISED GUIDELINES ON THE EXAMINATION OF PHARMACEUTICAL APPLICATIONS INVOLVING KNOWN SUBSTANCES (QUALITY UNIVERSAL ACCESSIBLE MEDICINES ACT GUIDE)
The Quality Universal Accessible Medicines Act Guide is the administrative interpretation of the amendments to the IP Code pursuant to Republic Act No. 9502 or the Universally Accessible Cheaper and Quality Medicines Act of 2008. It focuses on the methodology to be observed by patent examiners when examining patent applications involving drugs or medicines involving known substances.

It bears noting that the MPEP and the aforementioned guidelines were issued to streamline procedures, clarify substantive matters, and accommodate emerging technologies such as computer-related inventions, biotechnology, and applications involving drugs or medicines involving known substances. These guidelines do not constitute legal provisions. Therefore, in exceptional cases, patent examiners may depart from these guidelines. Patent applicants should still carefully check whether their applications are aligned not only with these guidelines, but also with the Intellectual Property Code and existing rules and regulations.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author. This article is for general informational and educational purposes and not offered as and does not constitute legal advice or legal opinion.

 

Danielle S. Cadiz is an Associate of the Intellectual Property Department at the Angara Abello Concepcion Regala & Cruz Law Offices (ACCRALAW).

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dscadiz@accralaw.com

Too much monkey business

The New York Times article was pretty damning. In 2014, three German automakers funded a laboratory experiment in the American state of New Mexico which sought to make it appear that diesel fumes weren’t harmful to human beings.

The “study” — made known only when the story came out — had people around the globe howling in indignant protest. Ten monkeys were made to sit in airtight rooms while they cluelessly inhaled emissions coming out of the tailpipe of a diesel Volkswagen Beetle.

The car companies that financed the “research” were BMW, Daimler (Mercedes-Benz) and Volkswagen. With a healthy slice of their respective product lines boasting diesel propulsion, they all had a lot to lose from the rapidly deteriorating reputation of vehicles with oil-burners under the hood. In June 2012, for instance, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer officially classified diesel exhaust as “carcinogenic to humans.” Meaning you could develop cancer from breathing air contaminated with diesel emissions.

What investigators found was that the Beetle used in the experiment had been rigged such that it would emit far less harmful particles in a laboratory setting than it would in the real world. Obviously, a serious wrongdoing here is the willful intent to cheat. You will recall that Volkswagen had already run afoul of US regulators after equipping its diesel vehicles with a device that tampered with emissions tests in their favor — an offense that ultimately resulted in a $14.7-billion fine.

But an equally crucial transgression is the use of animals to accomplish what appears to be a political goal — a desperate lobbying effort to demonstrate to regulators and consumers that inhaling toxic diesel fumes is perfectly okay. What the Golf were they thinking?

Installing an emissions-cheating mechanism on cars was bad enough; making defenseless monkeys inhale diesel exhaust all day was the height of soulless idiocy. Finding out your favorite car brand refused to play by the rules in emissions tests would cause you to doubt its trustworthiness. Discovering it harmed animals just to advance its agenda would make you doubt its humanity.

Last week, Volkswagen announced that it had already suspended its chief lobbyist in the wake of the New York Times story. “The boundaries of decent and moral conduct were clearly crossed,” a Volkswagen official was quoted by Reuters as saying. “It appears as if some at VW have lost their ethical and moral bearings.”

Here’s the elephant in the room: What about Volkswagen Philippines and its diesel products? Surely, the distributor’s diesel cars are sourced from the same factories that spawned the fraudulent units. But the reality is this: Using our emissions standards — we only recently switched to Euro4 even as Western countries had moved up to Euro6 as early as 2014 — every single brand-new diesel car from Germany would be many times cleaner and environment-friendlier compared to the old jeepneys and trucks we still allow to run on our roads.

Think about it: The world got furious when 10 monkeys were forced to breathe toxic gases. Millions of Filipinos have been inhaling pollutants far worse than what those simians sucked into their lungs. Not to sound overly dramatic, but that’s the message being sent across by our inept government agencies every time they renew the registration documents of dilapidated vehicles that wouldn’t even pass for junk in other Asian countries — that the lives of apes have more value than those of Metro Manila residents. Chew on that thought.

The UK is now proposing “unlimited fines” for car manufacturers that deliberately sidestep exhaust regulations, while Germany is looking into the activities of two Bosch employees for their possible role in Chrysler’s own diesel emissions case in the US. What these tell us is that other nations take the air they breathe seriously. To them, contributing to a cleaner environment isn’t an option — it’s a must. Do so or go out of business (or even go to jail).

It’s time our lawmakers paid attention to what’s happening around the world. While others are vigorously fighting for their right to breathe clean oxygen, here we are willingly puffing noxious gases from rickety vehicles and imported discards on a daily basis.

Otherwise, we’re all better off caged in a zoo. Maybe there we’ll have a better chance of respiring speckless air.

Pistons took a gamble

“The hardest thing to do in this league is get a proven star,” Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy told scribes in the aftermath of a stunning deal that netted him Blake Griffin. “We know the injury history. That’s the risk on it, but that risk was worth it because of the talent we’re bringing back.” And for all the criticism he got in pulling the trigger on a trade that isn’t without downsides, he’s right; nothing in the National Basketball Association is free, and when you’re in a swoon that threatens to kill your campaign before you even reach the All-Star break, you take the gamble.

To Van Gundy’s good fortune (and, no doubt, relief), his bet has so far reaped dividends. In the week since he welcomed Griffin into the fold, the Pistons have reeled off three consecutive victories. So energizing was the latter, in fact, that the very news of the swap triggered an inspired outing from the red, white, and blue; they ended their January with a convincing shellacking of the imploding-of-late-but-always-dangerous Cavaliers.

It would, of course, be foolhardy to think the Pistons would run the table from here on. Even with Griffin headlining their cause, they’re nowhere near close to taking the measure of the league’s perennial contenders. That said, they now possess a better-than-even chance of not just making the postseason, but actually beginning it with homecourt advantage. Following yesterday’s emphatic triumph over the weary Blazers, they found themselves at .500 and tied for the eighth seed in the East.

Whether the Pistons will completely reap the benefits of Griffin’s presence remains to be seen. For one thing, his durability remains a question mark. For another, there is still much to improve on for his partnership with resident marquee name Andre Drummond to take off a la Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins with the Pelicans. Nonetheless, it’s clear that he has made a deep impact, even off the court. Little Caesars Arena is moving turnstiles, slowly but steadily, and fans now appreciate the trees as much as they do the forest. It’s a work in progress, but one with tremendous upside.

 

Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Basic Energy Corp.

Art & Culture (02/07/18)

Sex show at Yuchengco

AS PART of the ongoing Fringe Festival Manila and National Arts Month, the Yuchengco Museum will host Deus Sex Machina, Metro Manila’s first (and only) comedic erotica live-reading ensemble. The ensemble will present Hard for Art’s Sake, eight new original pieces, on Feb. 9, 9 p.m., at the museum. The group will also present My Dad’s Imaginary Castrated Penis, a musical that tackles sex, politics, patriarchy and toxic masculinity by two-time Palanca Award-winning playwright Dustin Celestino. The performance will be on Feb. 23, 9 p.m. Tickets to the performances (P300 for Art’s Sake and P350 for Castrated Penis) are available at the Yuchengco Museum and at TicketWorld. The museum is located at RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Senator Gil J. Puyat Avenues, Makati City.

Open call auditions

ATLANTIS THEATRICAL has issued an open call for auditions to fill all the roles in its upcoming production of the musical Waitress. The auditions will be held on Feb. 7, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. (final registration at 4 p.m. at Opera Haus, 3656 Bautista St., Makati City. Interested parties should prepare 16 bars of a Sara Bareilles song sung in her style. Bring sheet music as a pianist will be provided. Waitress begins rehearsals on Sept. 24, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. with a run from Nov. 9-Dec. 2. Those with any schedule conflicts are asked not to audition. For details, contact casting@atlantistheatrical.com.

Lecture on being a curator

THE Ateneo Art Gallery presents a lecture by Dominique Marechal called “A Curator at Work” on Feb. 13, 2 p.m.-4 p.m. at the Ben Chan ArtSuit of the Areté, Ateneo de Manila Universtiry, Katipunan Ave., Quezon City. The lecture deals with the experience and fieldwork of a curator in a major European museum, specifically that of Mr. Marechal who is a former curator at the Groeningemuseum in Bruges, Belgium. To register, visit this link http://bit.ly/ACuratorAtWork.

Four shows at Vinyl on Vinyl

VINYL ON VINYL will be opening four shows on Feb. 10. These are the group show Disorderly, featuring the works of Fiona Helena, Gerecho Iniel, Klarina Ulpindo, Ikea Rizalon, Neil Arvin Javier, Roshan Begum, Tiffany Lafuente, and Cenon Norial x Mav Bernardo, as curated by Dexter Sy; Game Over featuring works by Miguel Paolo Borja and Reen Barrera; and the solo shows Under the Vanilla Sky, featuring works by Rene Cuvos, and Imposing the Truth by Aigars Bikse. The exhibits run until Feb. 27. The gallery is at 2241 Pasillo 18, La Fuerza Compound 1, Chino Roces Ave., Makati City.

Printmaking at Benilde

BY HAND: Rediscovering the Art of Printmaking will open on Feb. 15 at the 12th Floor Gallery, School of Design and Arts (SDA) Campus at De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLS-CSB). With the theme “Land, Sea and the Exchange of Ideas,” the featured works will trace one of the oldest art forms to the present-day digital era. The show is curated by architect Gerry Torres, the College’s Center of Campus Arts Head. The exhibit will feature works by artists from three studios, namely Cicada Press of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia by Michael Kempson; Chiangmai Art on Paper (CAP) Studios in Thailand by Kitikong Tilokwattanotai: and the Association of Pinoy Printmakers by Benjie T. Cabrera. Faculty and students of Benilde’s Design Foundation Program will likewise showcase their pieces. The gallery will contain an adjacent printmaking studio, where professionals will demonstrate the creation of art on paper. All items produced onsite are to be exhibited and eventually sold to interested guests, with the proceeds going to the SDA Scholarship Fund. The presentation will be open to the public until April 14. The DLS-CSB SDA Campus is located at 950 Pablo Ocampo St. (Vito Cruz St.), Malate, Manila.

Alsons wants to play ‘major role’ in Mindanao growth

ALSONS Consolidated Resources, Inc. (ACR) expects to play a “major role” in fueling the economic growth of Mindanao, which it said received a big boost with the signing of the $380-million loan from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to fund infrastructure projects.

“A critical component to sustain economic progress is the availability of a stable, reliable and affordable supply of energy to meet the growing demands of development,” said Tomas I. Alcantara, chairman and president of ACR, in a statement.

“As a significant power provider in the Zamboanga Peninsula and Mindanao, we know that we have a major role to play in fueling the economic growth in the region by investing in the energy sector and building power plants,” added Mr. Alcantara, who also chairs the Philippines’ Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC).

The ADB loan will finance 11 big-ticket infrastructure projects to improve road networks in Western Mindanao, particularly in the Zamboanga Peninsula, ACR said.

It said the package would bankroll the construction of around 280 kilometers of national, primary, secondary and tertiary roads and bridges in the peninsula and Tawi-Tawi, to be implemented from 2018 to 2023.

Mr. Alcantara said the roll out of infrastructure projects would help maximize the growth potential and hasten the economic development not only of the Zamboanga but the entire Mindanao.

He said the Zamboanga Peninsula would be the contact point of the southern main island in the planned interconnection of the Mindanao and Visayas power grids.

“By the time of completion of the (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ prospective Visayas-Mindanao) interconnection project, we will have two operating power plants strategically located in the Zamboanga Peninsula ready to provide power to the Visayas as well,” he added.

The Alcantara power group supplies electricity to the Zamboanga City, the peninsula’s largest population center, through its 100-megawatt (MW) diesel plant of its unit of Western Mindanao Power Corp.

The group operates three other power facilities in Mindanao, namely: the 103-MW Mapalad Power Corp. diesel plant in Iligan City; the 55-MW Southern Philippines Power Corp. diesel facility in Alabel, Sarangani; and the first 105-MW section of the 210-MW Sarangani Energy Corp. baseload coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani.

Sarangani Energy’s second 105-MW section is in the advanced stages of construction and is on-track to start its commercial run in 2019.

The Alsons power group plans to start this year the construction of the 105-MW San Ramon Power, Inc. (SRPI) baseload coal-fired power plant in Talisayan, Zamboanga City. The plant is the biggest power project in the Zamboanga Peninsula and is expected to start operating in 2021.

Mr. Alcantara said the company has begun preliminary work on a 15-megawatt run-of-river hydropower project at the Siguil River basin in Maasim, Sarangani. The project’s commercial operation is expected in 2020. — Victor V. Saulon

Draghi says European Central Bank can’t yet declare inflation fight victory

MARIO DRAGHI said that the European Central Bank (ECB) still can’t claim success in the struggle to restore inflation, and defended its policies from complaints that they widen inequalities.

“While our confidence that inflation will converge toward our aim of below, but close to, 2% has strengthened, we cannot yet declare victory on this front,” the ECB president said at European Parliament hearing in Strasbourg on Monday. “Monetary policy will evolve in a fully data-dependent and time-consistent manner.”

With the euro-area economy expanding at the fastest pace in a decade, unemployment falling and nascent signs of price pressure evident, policy makers are considering the smoothest way out of their €2.6-trillion ($3.2 trillion) asset-purchase program. Still, the officials want to move as cautiously as possible amid concerns including exchange-rate volatility, which Draghi reiterated requires monitoring.

Draghi came to the European Parliament to debate the ECB’s 2016 annual report, but lawmakers opted to quiz him on a wide range of subjects, from Brexit to the Hungarian central bank’s alleged financing of the government.

Legislators also addressed the succession of Vice-President Vitor Constancio in June, on which Parliament members get to cast a non-binding vote on nominees. Ireland has put forward central bank governor Philip Lane, while Spain, which has long claimed the seat it lost six years ago, hasn’t yet put anyone forward.

EVERYONE WINS
Draghi largely sidestepped those issues, focusing his closing response on defending the ECB’s bond-buying program from the accusation that it favors Southern European countries such as Italy at the expense of German savers. He said “there isn’t one specific country that has benefited most.”

He acknowledged that quantitative easing increases inequality in the short run, but said those negative effects are vastly outweighed by the windfall that economic expansion and falling unemployment bring to society as a whole. The euro-area economy added 7.5 million jobs since the height of the crisis, which Draghi says are partly a consequence of the ECB’s policies.

Governing Council members expect the bond-buying program will be wound down with a short taper after September, and some officials want to give investors a clearer signal on how long interest rates will stay at record lows.

On the day that Bitcoin tumbled as much as 18% against the dollar, Draghi also repeated that cryptocurrencies are “unregulated” and “very risky assets,” and said the ECB’s bank-oversight arm will examine the exposure of lenders.

“We are not observing a systemically relevant holding of digital currencies” by banks, he said. “However, recent developments like the listing of Bitcoin futures contracts by US exchanges could lead also European banks to hold positions in Bitcoin, and therefore we certainly look at that.”

REFORM NEEDS
While lawmakers largely skirted around reform proposals aimed at strengthening the euro area, Draghi repeated his call to capitalize on the positive economic momentum to make the 19-nation region more resilient to future shocks, including by finishing work on bank regulation, a system for closing failed banks and euro-area deposit insurance.

“It is important to complete the architecture of the banking union by putting in place the agreed common backstop to the Single Resolution Fund,” he said. “A fully fledged European deposit-insurance scheme is an indispensable counterpart to the single currency as everyone in the euro area should be able to have confidence that the money in their bank account enjoys the same level of protection.” — Bloomberg

FX hedges get expensive as central banks tighten

INVESTORS looking for safeguards against emerging risks in the placid foreign exchange (FX) market may want to act now — before global central banks start to make waves later this year.

That’s the message from both Standish and Wells Fargo, who view the prospect of tighter global monetary policy as a potential trigger for increased turbulence. The rocky times may arrive sooner than current volatility levels suggest, with the European Central Bank fine-tuning its exit from quantitative easing and the Federal Reserve continuing to hike interest rates.

Still-low volatility presents an opportunity to guard against the coming turmoil, according to Brendan Murphy, head of Global and Multi-Sector Fixed Income for Standish, a part of BNY Mellon Asset Management North America Corp., which oversees $576 billion.

“We’re definitely looking for ways we can protect the portfolio if volatility picks up, because it’s relatively inexpensive to do that right now,” said Murphy. “Realized volatility is low, implied volatility is low — we think that probably doesn’t persist forever.”

Six-month dollar-yen implied volatility offers an attractive safeguard, according to Murphy, given the yen’s sensitivity to US  interest rates and the Japanese currency’s flight-to-quality characteristics. Despite inching higher to start 2018, implied volatility on the pair remains roughly 25% below where it was a year ago.

Volatility languished in the wake of the global financial crisis as the world’s central banks pursued loose monetary policies to spark growth. That dynamic may reverse soon, with global monetary policy likely to become less accommodating over the course of 2018, according to Wells Fargo.

“Currency volatility has been subdued overall, which may in part reflect still-benign global monetary policy settings,” wrote analysts including Nick Bennenbroek in a note dated Feb. 5. “Accordingly, corporates and investors considering options-based hedging structures may want to contemplate transacting while currency volatility remains relatively low.” — Bloomberg

Headline inflation rates in the Philippines

THE OVERALL INCREASE in prices of widely used goods and services surged in January by its fastest clip in more than three years, topping market consensus on the back of the impact of higher taxes. Read the full story.

How PSEi member stocks performed — February 6, 2018

Here’s a quick glance at how PSEi stocks fared on Tuesday, February 6, 2018.

SC rules martial law extension in Mindanao constitutional

By Minde Nyl R. dela Cruz

THE SUPREME COURT en banc on Tuesday, Feb. 6, dismissed by a vote of 10-5 the consolidated petitions against the full-year extension of martial law and suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in Mindanao.

The Congress in joint session on Dec. 13, 2017, voted 240-27 to extend martial rule in Mindanao from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 this year.

“Wherefore, the Court finds sufficient factual bases for the issuance of Resolution of Both Houses (RBH) No. 4 and declares it as constitutional,” the order read. “Accordingly, the consolidated Petitions are hereby dismissed.”

The petitions were filed by the groups of Albay Representative Edcel C. Lagman, Bayan Muna chair Neri J. Colmenares, lawyer Christian S. Monsod, and Eufemia Campos Cullamat, a leader of the indigenous peoples in Mindanao.

The decision, penned for the majority by Associate Justice Noel G. Tijam, noted, among other substantive issues, the Constitution’s silence “on how many times Congress may extend a proclamation of martial law or the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus” and added that the period for the extension of the proclamation is left to the discretion of the Congress.

“If the Constitutional Commission had intended to limit any extension to 60 days, it would have been expressly stated and would not have been left to Congress,” the decision stated.

The Court further said that “facts presented by the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines)” and persisting “rebellion that spawned the Marawi incident” provided “sufficient factual bases to extend Proclamation No. 216,” issued by President Rodrigo R. Duterte at the start of the Marawi siege on May 23 last year.

“When the President and Congress ascertain whether public safety requires the declaration and extension of martial law, they do so by calibrating not only the present state of public safety but the further repercussions of the actual rebellion to public safety in the future as well,” the high court added.

The en banc also said the choice to use military powers to curb rebellion “is a prerogative of the President.”

Moreover, the “[t]he claims of violation of human rights are speculative and lack a nexus between the exercise of martial law powers and their apprehension of such violations,” the high court said.

The court stressed that the “manner of Congress’ deliberation with respect to the President’s request (to extend martial law) is not subject to judicial review,” with Congress having its own authority and powers.

To this, Solicitor General Jose C. Calida expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court for voting “in favor of the government.”

“This legal victory will usher in the prosperity of Mindanao after the rebellion is quelled,” Mr. Calida said.

For his part, Mr. Lagman said in a statement: “The majority of the Supreme Court justices can be supreme even in their error.”

“When the majority of the justices of the Supreme Court fall in cadence with the President and the Congress in violating the Constitution, then the country is abandoned in the quagmire of tripartite derogation of the people’s civil liberties,” he added.

Lawyer Edre U. Olalia, one of the counsels of Mr. Colmenares’s group, said that the decision was “[n]ot really totally unexpected but somehow still unbelievable.”

“The discretion is so unbridled that Martial Law can be imposed anytime, anywhere, ad infinitum and effectively without limitations other than the [token] formalities in the Constitution,” Mr. Olalia noted in a text message.

Associate Justices Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado M. Peralta, Lucas P. Bersamin, Mariano C. Del Castillo, Estela M. Perlas Bernabe, Samuel R. Martires, Andres B. Reyes Jr., and Alexander G. Gesmundo concurred in the ponencia.

On the other hand, the dissenting justices are: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno, Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, Associate Justices Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, Francis H. Jardeleza, and Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa.

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