Carpio, Morales press SC to issue TRO on anti-terror law

MANILA, Philippines – Retired Justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio-Morales prodded the Supreme Court to issue a restraining order on the implementation of the anti-terror law immediately.

Republic Act11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 took effect last July even without its Implementing Rules and Regulations. This month, the government has already released and published the IRR.

Carpio, Morales and the other petitioners said the IRR shows the government’s resolve “to fully implement the law that is unconstitutional for its dire ramifications to fundamental constitutional rights” not only to them but also the everyone.

“The state of facts has created a clear state of urgency and paramount necessity for the Honorable Court to immediately act upon and grant Petitioners’ application for injunctive relief,” read the petition.

The Anti-Terrorism Act has been the most contentious law, with over 30 petitions against it before the high court. The majority of the petitions have been asking for a restraining order, but none has been issued to date.

This is the second motion that prodded the high court to act on the anti-terrorism cases.

The two motions were filed at the height of a red-tagging spree of a military officer accusing celebrities of ties with the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The Supreme Court  “must step in to prevent any imminent and threatened enforcement of the ATA, especially with the effectivity of the law’s implementing rules and regulations (IRR).”

“These developments will surely disrupt the status quo as law enforcers rob herein petitioners of the free exercise of their previously unhampered Constitutional liberties,” they stressed.

The other petitioners, aside from Carpio and Morales, are University of the Philippines’ Associate Dean and Institute for Maritime Affairs and Law of the Sea Director Jay L. Batongbacal, Institute for the Administration of Justice Director Dante B. Gatmaytan, and Senior Professorial Lecturers Victoria V. Loanzon and Anthony Charlemagne C. Yu, former SC public information office head Theodore O. Te, former Magdalo Party-list Representative and Security Analyst Francisco Ashley L. Acedillo , and incumbent UP University Student Council Councilor Tierone James M. Santos.

Named respondents were the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), the Senate, the House of Representatives, Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea, and several Cabinet secretaries.

Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta has assured an expeditious resolution, after oral arguments, of the 37 petitions filed against ATA.

Peralta said the justice in charge of the petitions is expected to submit the consolidated issues for oral arguments, the dates of which have yet to be set by the high court. [ac]