It was a rampage of pro-Duterte solons.

The supermajority in the House of Representatives and in the Senate acceded baselessly and with alacrity to President Rodrigo Dutrete’s request for a one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao.

The prolonged extension is a congressional Christmas gift to Duterte even as it placed in jeopardy civil liberties and the rule of law.

The making of a “momentous” decision was confined to a few hours while the extension would endure for 8,760 hours in the whole of 2018 in Mindanao.

After about three hours and thirty five minutes of manifestations and interpellations inordinately constricted to only three (3) minutes each for interested Senators and Representatives, the joint session of Congress approved the extension up to December 31, 2018 on the mere say-so of military and police authorities that there is “continuing rebellion” in Mindanao.

Those who voted with undue haste for the extension failed to realize that rebellion is neither a state of mind nor a state of fear. It must be actual, not contrived.

The cover of martial law would embolden elements of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police to indiscriminately attack and kill perceived “enemies of the State” and conduct warrantless arrests, searches and seizures even against innocent civilians while courts are functioning to judiciously issue such warrants.

EDCEL C. LAGMAN