Terror law IRR can’t correct deficiencies

A lawyers group yesterday is not about to agree with the recent release of the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) of Republic Act (RA) 11479, otherwise known as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) said the IRR cannot correct the problems in RA 11479, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

“It is a basic principle in law that an IRR cannot rise above the provisions of the law that it seeks to clarify,” IBP president Domingo Egon Cayosa said in a statement.

Cayosa added the IRR may therefore be hounded by the same questions surrounding RA 11479 itself.

The IBP head raised the said point following the IRR’s registration with the Office of the National Administrative Register last Friday, 16 October and publication over the weekend.

It is a basic principle in law that an IRR cannot rise above the provisions of the law that it seeks to clarify.

“The efforts of the Department of Justice to address the questions, fears, and objections of many over the Anti-Terrorism Law (RA 11479) through the publication of its implementing rules and regulations may be welcome and appreciated,” Cayosa said.

“Unfortunately, as Department of Justice officials themselves correctly admit, they cannot go beyond what the law provides,” he added.

The said anti-terror law has somewhat invited 37 petitions, including the IBP’s, now pending before the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate in parts or as a whole RA 11479.

“We hope and pray that the pending petitions before the Honorable Supreme Court will be resolved on the merits for the proper guidance of all,” he added.

Cayosa said the people denounce terrorism but the Anti-Terrorism Law “impinges on constitutionally guaranteed rights and settled principles of law and governance.”

“The law affects all of us and even the next generation of Filipinos beyond the term of the current Congress and administration,” he said.