Journalists, artists file 13th petition vs. anti-terror law

The number of petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 has climbed to 13 after journalists, writers, and artists urged the Supreme Court (SC) to declare it void for being unconstitutional.

National Artist Bienvenido Lumbera, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, Concerned Artists of the Philippines chairperson Leonilo Doloricon, journalists Ces Drilon and Inday Espina-Varona, and former University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication deans Luis Teodoro and Roland Tolentino, are among the 38 petitioners.

Counsel for the petitioners lawyer Evalyn Ursua said their petition is unique as it includes petitioners from Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao.

"We make a case that even before the enactment of the Anti Terrorism Act of 2020, journalists, writers, artists, and cultural workers have already been harassed, intimidated, threatened, redtagged and arrested. So the fear of the petitioners is that the situation will worsen," Ursua said.

The petitioners said many of them have suffered red-tagging, threats and harassment from authorities in their work as journalists, writers and cultural workers. They said the anti-terrorism law will pave the way for similar violations.

They argued that the law provides a vague definition of the crime of terrorism and other related crimes. Its enforcement, they said, will encroach on basic rights such as freedom of speech and of expression.

While the law excludes advocacy, protest, and dissent, among other exercises of civil and political rights from the definition of terrorism, it qualifies that the exempted acts are those that are "not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person's life, or to create a serious risk to public safety."

"How do law enforcers or even judges determine that intent or lack thereof? Without the overt acts being defined in the first part of Section 4, ascertaining intent becomes an arbitrary exercise that inevitably will lead to abuse," the petitioners said.

Because of this definition, they said Section 4 threatens their rights given the nature of their work as journalists, writers, artists, and cultural workers.

They also assailed Section 29, which provides for the warrantless detention of terrorism suspects for up to 24 days before they have to be charged in court.

Critics of the law have claimed that Section 29 allows the Anti-Terrorism Council, a body composed of executive officials, to authorize the arrest of terrorism suspects. The Constitution empowers only the courts to order arrests.

The petitioners said Section 29 violates the doctrine of separation of powers and the due process clause in the 1987 Constitution.

"Republic Act No. 11479 destroys the system of checks and balances through its Section 29. It is one more reason to declare the law unconstitutional," they said.

They also asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the enforcement of the law while the case is pending.

The SC has ordered the consolidation of the first eight petitions against the law, which were filed by lawmakers, lawyers, human rights advocates, labor groups, framers of the 1987 Constitution, and professors.

Retired SC justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales have also filed a petition alongside professors of the University of the Philippines College of Law.

More groups are expected to file petitions. — with Tina Panganiban-Perez/RSJ, GMA News