SC receives 3 more petitions against Anti-Terror Act

Three more petitions were filed with the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday challenging the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that was signed into law by President Duterte last July 3 as Republic Act No. 11479.

- REY G. PANALIGAN

All the petitions sought the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop the government from implementing the law starting July 19.

The three new petitions were those filed by Law Dean Mel Sta. Maria and several professors of the Far Eastern University (FEU), Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, and the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives led by Bayan Muna Party-list Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.

The first petition was filed electronically last July 4 by a group led by lawyer Howard Calleja and former education secretary Armin Luistro. Hard copies of their petition were filed with the SC on Monday, July 6.

While the three petitions pleaded to declare unconstitutional several provisions in RA 11479, the case filed by the group of Zarate sought the declaration of the law in its entirety as violative of the Constitution.

It was not known immediately if the four petitions will be taken up in the High Court's regular full-court session on Tuesday, July 7.

A check with the SC showed that the first petition filed by Calleja’s group was raffled off to a justice in charge only on Monday.

All the three other petitions have to each undergo a raffle for assignment to a justice in-charge. The justices-in charge will have to make their recommendations to the full court which, thereafter, may decide to consolidate the four petitions into one case.

Under the SC’s internal rules, the justice in-charge who handles the petition which has the lowest docket number will get all the cases.

The group of Sta. Maria challenged Sections 4, 25, and 29 of RA 11479.