OSG to Submit Habeas Reply on March 17

The Office of the Solicitor General will submit to the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday its reply to the consolidated petition for habeas corpus that will be used as basis in determining if the government should be ordered to present former president Rodrigo Duterte before the Court.

- Evelyn Macairan

The OSG said it received only late yesterday afternoon a copy of the SC resolution that required the government to reply to the petition.

At past 6 p.m. on Thursday, the SC issued a statement saying that the justices gave the 11 respondents, all from the government, a non-extendible period of 24 hours from receipt of notice to state why the peremptory writ of habeas corpus should not be issued.

Solicitor General Menardo Guevarra explained that “under the Rules of Court, if a pleading/motion falls due on a weekend or a nonworking day, the same may be filed on the next working day.”

The OSG would serve as counsel of the respondents in the three petitions for habeas corpus that were filed by three of Duterte’s children – Davao City Mayor Sebastian, Davao City First District Rep. Paolo and Veronica.