SC again urged to stay terror law

Another group of petitioners on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to immediately resolve their plea to stop the enforcement of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

In a very urgent motion to resolve application for a temporary restraining order filed by the Free Legal Assistance Group, Senators Francis Pangilinan and Leila de Lima and veteran journalists Ma. Ceres P. Doyo and Marites Vitug, among other petitioners, argued that allowing the enforcement of the Anti-Terrorism Act “can only lead to the actual and pervasive curtailment by the state of the constitutional right to free speech and expression … Only the injunctive power of the honorable court stands between the people and the imminent terror heralded by the Anti-Terrorism Act and its IRR (implementing rules and regulations),” the petitioners added.

Saying the IRR is “as fatally flawed as the Anti-Terrorism Act,” the petitioners scored the IRR as “an instrument that could succeed only in exacerbating the violation of constitutional rights.” —TINA G. SANTOS