FRANCISCO S. TATAD
THE Supreme Court has this unpleasant habit of announcing its decisions on important cases by saying simply how the 15 justices voted, without releasing the text of its ruling and the concurring and dissenting opinions that explain the magistrates’ positions on the constitutional issues. This the high court has done time and again, and it did it yet once more on the petitions questioning the constitutionality of President Rodrigo Duterte’s Proclamation 216 of May 23, 2017, declaring martial law and suspending the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole of Mindanao for a period of 60 days.