NUPL to challenge anti-terror law before SC, calls measure 'perilous'

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL) president on Friday condemned President Rodrigo Duterte's signing of the controversial anti-terror bill into law.

"This without doubt is the most unpopular and perilous piece of legislation that could ever be pushed by a government that is fixated with the potion of power," NUPL chief Edre Olalia said in a statement.

"In time, we will look back to this day of infamy and say the unbridled and terrorizing power of the government will always bend and retreat eventually when the people push back hard enough," he said.

The NUPL has readied a petition challenging the constitutionality of the law before the Supreme Court (SC).

Former SC senior associate justice Antonio Carpio, who had warned that the Philippines will be under a situation "worse than martial law" if the bill was signed, has also said he would question it before the high tribunal.

"It ain't over yet," Olalia said. "We will not cease to exhaust any and all legitimate steps and platforms to challenge this draconian law."

Officials announced on Friday that the President had signed the law, which contains provisions that critics say are unconstitutional and could empower the government to go after legitimate dissent.

United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, earlier joined calls for Duterte not to sign the bill, saying its looming enactment at the time heightened their concern about the “blurring of important distinctions between criticism, criminality and terrorism.”

Sought to replace the Human Security Act of 2007, the law contains a provision for the warrantless detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days. Critics also claimed that the Anti-Terrorism Council, a body to be created by the law, can authorize arrests, violating the Constitution which allows only judges to order arrests.

Senator Panfilo Lacson, who authored the bill at the Senate, has denied that the council would have this power.

PBA party-list Representative Jericho Nograles said the proposed law was not against activists and only targeted terrorists and violent extremists. -NB, GMA News