Govt to create anti-terror units
THE government will form units that will specifically enforce the Anti-Terrorism Law, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said on Sunday as some lawmakers vowed to question the new law before the Supreme Court.
Esperon said the Anti-Terrorism Council ( ATC) would designate units, officers and personnel that will make up the Anti- Terrorism Units.
He added that the members of the units “must be very familiar with the provisions of the [Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020].”
In a radio interview on Sunday, Esperon gave assurances that the newly minted law would not be abused by law enforcers and the ATC.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed the measure on July 3. It will become effective after 15 days or July 18, after its publication in the government’s OfficialGazette.
Esperon said the ATC would welcome inputs from lawmakers in writing its implementing rules and regulations.
Officers and personnel who will be assigned to the anti-terrorism units must have the “technical knowledge to enforce and execute the law and its rules and regulations,” he noted.
Esperon said the ATC’s first task would be to draft a list of terrorist groups that would be covered by the new law.
So far, only the Abu Sayyaf Group fits the description of a terrorist organization, while the proscription for the communist New People’s Army “is still with the courts.”
Several critics of the law are planning to challenge it before the high tribunal.
On Saturday, the first petition questioning and seeking a temporary restraining order against the law was filed by a lawyers’ group led by Howard Calleja, the De La Salle brothers and civic groups. Other groups had earlier registered intent to file cases.
Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman called on the Supreme Court to review and remove the “unconstitutional provisions in the law.
“The new anti-terrorism law must be cleansed of its constitutional infirmities notwithstanding the say-so of its implementors,” he said.
“It is incumbent upon the Supreme Court to use the scalpel of judicial review to excise the numerous oppressive and unconstitutional provisions of the new law in its adjudication of relevant petitions,” he added.
Lagman maintained that “no amount of assurances from law enforcement agencies that there will be no abuses in the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 would mitigate the incidence of abuses because the law itself is abusive and derogatory of human rights, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms.”
“The repressive provisions in the law embolden law enforcers to perpetrate errant and arbitrary implementation against spirited ordinary citizens, progressive activists and political dissenters who have long been considered as ‘ enemies of the state,’” he continued.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan on Sunday said he plans to question the legality of some provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Law before the high court.
He bared that Sen. Ana Theresia Hontiveros would join him in questioning the law’s constitutionality. They both voted against the passage of the measure believing that it violates human rights.
“The fight is not yet finished and we will continue our opposition to this law,” he said.
Pangilinan stressed that the Anti-Terrorism Law violates the
Bill of Rights, particularly the principle of warrantless arrests. He said the controversial law failed to specifically define terrorism, which, if implemented, might lead to abuse.
In a related development, the Kabataan party-list (KPL) condemned the “baseless and illegal arrest” of 11 activists in a protest action against the Anti-Terrorism Law in Cabuyao, Laguna on Saturday.
The activists — members of KPL, Bayan, Bayan Muna, Gabriela and Kilusang Mayo Uno — were reportedly arrested after the protest program.
KPL Laguna Chairman Justin Umali said the protesters were only exercising their rights.
“Activists and those expressing concerns and the truth are not terrorists. The arrests strips off our freedom,” he added.
Give law a chance
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana urged the public to give the new law a chance.
“It is a much-needed measure to clothe law enforcement agencies with the necessary power to contain and eradicate terrorists who don’t play by any rules and who hide behind our law to pursue their evil deeds,” he said.
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, meanwhile, assured that the Supreme Court would be fair in tackling the legal and constitutional issues surrounding the controversial Anti-Terrorism Law.
Peralta reiterated that there would be no special treatment for any case involving the new law that would be brought before the high court.
He noted that the court is a
collegial body whose decision would prevail over the individual opinions of the magistrates.
“It will depend on the deliberations whether to conduct an oral argument or recommend first. It will depend on the issues because they might be asking only the veto of certain provisions, or the veto of the whole law,” he said.
“It will also depend on the comment of the Solicitor General. If there are issues factual in nature then we usually go to oral arguments, but if the issues are merely, purely constitutional, there’s no need to determine the factual issues then probably we just submit the case for decision based on the responses and pleadings of the parties,” Peralta added.
Vice President Maria Leonor Robredo expressed disappointment over the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 despite public clamor against it.
“Even when it had been expected, it’s still saddening when it was signed. I was hoping that with the strong opposition, voices will be heard. But apparently not,” she said during her weekly radio program on Sunday.
She clarified that she was not opposed to the creation of an antiterror law, but stressed that there should be safeguards against abuses. She cited the previous cases of abuses such as the recent killing of four military intelligence officers by police forces in Sulu and the anti-drug war that has taken lives of ordinary citizens.