MANILA – The Office of Solicitor General has urged the Supreme Court to dismiss petitions seeking a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act, which took effect over the weekend.
The judiciary must exercise utmost caution, prudence and judiciousness in the issuance of temporary restraining orders and injunctive writs, according to Solicitor General Jose Calida.
“The writ should not be granted lightly or precipitately, but only when the court is fully satisfied that the law permits it and the emergency demands it,” Calida said in his 223-page comment.
Calida argued that all the eight consolidated petitions against the controversial measure failed to prove that its implementation would cause “grave and irreparable injury” to the petitioners’ constitutional rights.
“It is the public who would be at risk from terrorist attacks if the law is not enforced,” the Solicitor General said.
On the provision that extends the time suspected terrorists could be arrested and detained without warrant from three days under the previous law to up to 24 days, Calida said that it is “not a license to arrest any person based on mere suspicion.”
“Contrary to petitioners’ interpretation, therefore, the use of ‘suspected’ in Section 29 does not at all signify an abandonment of probable cause as threshold in warrantless arrest under Section 5(b), Rule 113 of the Revised Rules of Court,” Calida said.
“There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits a period of detention longer than three days,” he added. “What the law does not prohibit, it allows.”
Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 took effect on Saturday, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The implementing rules and regulations will come in 90 days as the Anti-Terrorism Council has started working on it, the DOJ added./PN
