UP's isaw, ‘Captain Ri’ figure in oral arguments on anti-terror law

Popular Filipino street food isaw and a certain Captain Ri found their way into the debate on the constitutionality of the controversial anti-terror law at the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday.

Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier tackled the two subjects as she grilled Alfredo Molo III, counsel for one of the petitioners against the measure at the resumption of oral arguments.

Javier recalled that the petitioners objected to the definition of material support in the law as this could include even mundane things. The law defines material support to terrorist acts as any property, tangible or intangible, including currency, lodging, lethal substances, explosives, personnel, and transportation.

During her interpellation, the magistrate asked Molo if the “iconic isaw” - a street food made from grilled pig or chicken intestines skewered on a stick - being sold at the University of the Philippines Diliman can be considered a mundane thing.

Molo, a UP alumnus currently teaching law at his alma mater, replied in the affirmative.

“I will be very sad,” Javier said.

In response, Molo said, “Well, it’s very special, Your Honor. It’s only available there.”

“If he owns a poultry and distributes the innards of the chicken sprayed with poison to the isaw vendors in UP precisely for the purpose of killing the isaw fanatics en masse like me, will the isaw still be mundane in our eyes?” Javier asked.

Molo replied, “No more, Your Honor.”

Javier said people in general “tend to be unmindful and unsuspecting of the so-called mundane things or objects.”

“We tend to take them for granted but because we think they are harmless and innocent. But these things are precisely what terrorists are looking for,” she added.

CLOY?

Javier posed another question, this time involving a fictional soldier named "Captain Ri."

“I know him, Your Honor,” Molo said to which Javier replied, “Really?”

Molo apparently thought that the justice referred to the character of a North Korean army officer played by South Korean actor Hyun Bin in the hit series “Crash Landing On You” only to be told by Javier that Captain Ri is a soldier assigned in Metro Manila.

"Oh, I thought a different Captain Ri," Molo said.

Javier said Captain Ri received information from an anonymous caller that five hospitals for children across the country will be blown up. She said the informant told Captain Ri that bombs would be detonated by mobile phone that was in the possession of an IT genius living in Cainta, Rizal.

Pressed to make a quick decision, the justice said if she were Captain Ri, she would order the evacuation of people in the hospitals and summon the bomb experts to defuse the bombs.

Javier said she would also seek authorization from the government to detain individuals residing in the address given by the informant while trying to determine the identity of the IT genius and his or her co-conspirators.

Critics of the anti-terror law warned against the up to 24 days of warrantless detention period for suspected terrorists and the alleged authority of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to authorize in writing the arrest of terrorism suspects.

"Unlike the fictional character of Captain Ri, you and the rest of your team are true to life patriots," Javier told Molo before ending her interpellation.

The SC will resume the oral arguments on March 9. -MDM, GMA News