(We yield this space to the statement of the Public Interest Law Center due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
ISSUANCE of the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of the terror law sets the state’s draconian powers in full throttle.
The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, Republic Act No. 11479, wrongfully authorizes the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to detain and designate persons suspected of committing “terrorist acts”, as vaguely defined.
Arrest now. Get authorization later.
The IRR makes this worse. Section 9.1 of the IRR allows any law enforcement officer to arrest a suspect even without prior written authorization from the ATC. It is like giving the police a blank check where they can list any person they choose to arrest.
That the written authorization can be obtained after the arrest, as the IRR provides, reveals its irrelevance and that it is merely meant to deceive the public.
Designate now, persecute forever.
The rules on domestic designation likewise show how the government can unilaterally declare persons and groups as terrorists, without prior notice or hearing. Akin to the notorious and dreaded drug lists of the Duterte administration’s “tokhang” policy, designation is a blatant flex of force. No amount of post-designation remedy, not even delisting, will repair the damage done.
The ATC is not a court of law. It is part of the Executive Department which has been brazen and routine in calling activists as “terrorists” and conjuring alleged ouster plots by the opposition.
The terror is bad law, and certainly will be used as a tool of persecution. Our opposition to the law remains firmly hinged on the vagueness of the law, its lack of safeguards for the innocent, and its grave violation of constitutional rights.
We entreat the Supreme Court to quickly act on the petitions before it, including ours filed by members of the religious community who are presently and actually being charged in courts today for daring to speak and work against government’s anti-people policies. Every day that passes with this law in place, is a day spent in terror and unjustness.
