8th case filed vs terror law

An eighth petition challenging the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 was filed on Monday by the party list group Sanlakas.

Unlike the petitions filed last week that asked the Supreme Court to nullify Republic Act No. 11479 in its entirety, Sanlakas questioned only the provision that defined acts considered as terrorism.

Represented by its president Manjette Lopez, secretary general Aaron Pedrosa and counsels JV Bautista and Emmanuel Jabla, Sanlakas said the provision’s “double negative” formulation in defining terrorism could be used to clamp down on legitimate protest actions.

Section 4 of the new law said terrorism “shall not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action and other similar exercises of civil and political rights which are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life or to create a serious risk to public safety.”

‘Dangerous situation’

“This creates the dangerous situation where the very acts protected and guaranteed by the 1987 Constitution can actually be … interpreted or assumed by the police and military operatives to be the crime of terrorism,” Sanlakas said in a nine-page petition.

“The right and duty of the state to combat the scourge of terrorism must be recognized, but this cannot be at the expense of our people’s hard earned and hard fought Constitutional rights and freedoms,” they added.

Sanlakas named as respondents President Duterte, the Senate and House of Representatives and Armed Forces Chief of Staff Felimon Santos Jr.

Mr. Duterte signed into law the antiterror measure amid mounting protests over fears that, granting sweeping powers to the President, it might be used to crush legitimate dissent and lead to violations of human rights.

The first petition against the antiterror law, which expands the definition of terrorism, was filed on July 4 by a group led by former Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro and lawyer Howard Calleja.

7 petitions

It was followed by petitions from Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, Far Eastern University law professors, led by Dean Mel Sta. Maria, and lawmakers from the Makabayan bloc in the House led by Bayan Muna party list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.

The petition of the labor groups Trade Union and Human Rights and the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center was filed on the same day as those of former government corporate counsel Rudolf Jurado and a group led by 1986 Constitutional Commission members Christian Monsod and Felicitas Aquino-Arroyo and the Ateneo Human Rights Center.

The first four petitions were consolidated by the Supreme Court during an en banc session.

With the exception of one, all seven petitions asked the high court to stop the new law’s implementation on July 18. All of them questioned the legality of several provisions in the law that they deemed to be violative of civil rights and due process.

While legal challenges mount, students and sectoral groups continue to take to the streets to protest the controversial antiterror law, which allows warrantless arrests and permits to hold persons without charge. INQ