SC to hear arguments on petition vs anti-terror law in January 2021

MANILA, Philippines— The Supreme Court will conduct the oral argument on the petitions assailing the constitutionality of Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 six months after it was signed into law.

The oral argument is set for Jan. 19, 2021.

Debate on the legality of the most contentious law was tentatively scheduled for September, but Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta admitted they were overwhelmed by the snowballing of petitions.

The Chief Justice said they thought the petitions that will be filed would not be more than 10, so they opted to wait.

To date, officially, there are 37 petitions against the said law, which is almost double the petitions filed against the RH Law and the Anti-Cybercrime Act.

The high court already enumerated the essential issues up for discussion, including if it is necessary to stop the implementation of the law.

The high court also took note of the following provisions of the contested law as part of the substantial issues that would be discussed:

Section 4 – definition of Terrorism;

Section 5 – threat to commit terrorism;

Section 6 – planning, training, preparing and facilitating the commission of terrorism;

Section 9 – inciting to commit terrorism;

Section 10 – recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization;

Section 11 – foreign terrorist;

Section 12 – providing material support to terrorists.

Section 25 – designation of terrorist individual, groups of persons, organizations or associations;

Section 26 – proscription of terrorist organizations, associations or group of persons;

Section 27 – preliminary order of proscription

Section 29 – detention without judicial warrant of arrest

A preliminary conference is scheduled for Nov. 26 to further iron out the details of the oral argument. [ac]

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