In a first, petitioners unite to press Supreme Court to halt anti-terror law enforcement

In their first display of unity, a majority of the groups challenging the anti-terror law pressed the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday to order a stop to the enforcement of the law ahead of oral arguments next year.

Lawyers for 23 of 37 sets of petitioners signed a joint motion for the court to issue a status quo ante order or a temporary restraining order which would enjoin the government from implementing the law.

Signatories include the groups of retired SC justices Antonio Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales, opposition lawmakers, activists, journalists, youth leaders, religious personalities, lawyers, and humanitarian workers.

They filed the motion on the same day the court held a preliminary conference in preparation for oral arguments scheduled for January 19, 2021. By January, the anti-terrorism law will have been in effect for around half a year.

Before Thursday, some of the petitioners had separately reiterated their pleas for the High Court to issue a preliminary injunction, fearing the continued implementation of the law would result in human rights violations.

"As has been manifested by some petitioners, there were already cases involving its implementation including the filing of a criminal case against two still detained Aetas in Zambales," the new motion states. "There is reportedly another case involving farmers in Negros Island."

The Zambales case involves Aetas accused of being communist rebels. Their lawyers said they were charged under the anti-terrorism law in a "reprisal" by the military against unarmed civilians and indigenous peoples for the death of a soldier in an alleged encounter with members of the New Peoples' Army.

The petitioners said these cases do not yet include the enforcement other provisions of the law, like surveillance. The military has admitted it is surveilling some of the petitioners and lawyers challenging the law.

The petitioners added that some of them have been "red-tagged" or accused of communist links by officials who are part of the Anti-Terrorism Council created by the law.

They said an injunction would "prevent, in the meantime running up to almost two months before the oral arguments, any further implementation of the provisions of the assailed law which may impact on the lives, liberties and security of the petitioners and the public at large."

The National Union of Peoples' Lawyers (NUPL), whose members are part of at least 11 petitions, said the unity was reached at a virtual caucus and consultation among the petitioners' lawyers hosted by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines on Wednesday morning.

"Indeed, as in cases of such transcendental importance and indubitable exigency, especially as it involves an epic conflict between overreaching State power vis-a-vis sacred individual and collective rights and freedoms, time is of the essence," the NUPL said.

The lawyers' group said the remaining petitioners who have not joined the motion due to time or location constraints may still do so or file their own. — BM, GMA News