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No safeguards in Anti-Terror Law, lawyer claims


The newly signed Anti-Terrorism Act — a measure that allows detention of individuals for up to 24 days without charges, among others — does not have safeguards as its authors claim, lawyer Howard Calleja said Monday.

"There are no safeguards in the law because the safeguards are all in the Constitution," said Calleja in an ANC interview, pointing out that the court is powerless to order the release of an individual detained sans arrest warrant.

"The Anti-Terrorism [Act] says the court will be informed that you are detained, but what can that court do? The court has no jurisdiction on that detained individual because there is no case filed against that individual yet," he said.

"Who knows what would happen in 14 to 24 days? There's nothing the court can do. They will be informed that you are locked up there for as much as 24 days, without any crime. The court cannot even release you because it has no jurisdiction over you. What are we arguing about here?" Calleja added.

Calleja, a law professor, is one of the lawyers who filed a petition before the Supreme Court on Monday asking for a temporary restraining order on the implementation of the Anti-Terrorism Act for allegedly being unconstitutional.

He was contradicting claims by the law's authors that the law has enough provisions that will protect the public against possible abuses by authorities when the law is enacted.

Calleja cited that while warrantless arrest is allowed under the Constitution, the arrested person should be released after three days if charges are not filed against him or her within that period.

Likewise, Calleja said that the Anti-Terrorism Law usurps the judiciary's authority to determine who are the terrorists since such power is transferred to the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) composed of presidential appointees.

The ATC, Calleja said, will be even more powerful than the court under the Anti-Terrorism Law because ATC is allowed to order the detention of people based on suspicion alone, unlike the courts which have to weigh arguments first if there is probable cause to issue a warrant of arrest on an individual facing a criminal charge.

"The ATC gets to decide that you are the terrorist. Even if the law says rally is allowed, but the ATC says otherwise, you will be detained," he said.

Calleja also hit the law's provision allowing for surveillance on a suspect, including bank accounts, for as long as 60 days.

"If you really have evidence, why do you need 60 days for that?" he said. "That is already a witch-hunt."

Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo earlier said the law provides the state the arsenal to effectively confront the challenges spawned by terrorism given that previous terroristic attacks have been inadequately responded to due to a toothless Human Security Act.

The Human Security Act penalizes a law enforcer P500,000 for every day of a wrongful detention of an individual, a provision absent in the Anti-Terror Act. —KBK, GMA News

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