SC, UN special rapporteur tackle ATA, judicial reforms

Supreme Court (SC) justices, led by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, and United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur Irene Khan discussed the country's Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) and judicial reforms during her visit, the court said Thursday.

According to the SC, it provided Khan with a copy of the SC’s rules on ATA and related laws.

Gesmundo said this was promulgated by the court “to ensure that our judges will handle properly and effectively, protecting the rights of people vis-à-vis prosecution against anti-terrorism.”

The court said they also discussed the SC’s decision where it declared two parts of ATA as unconstitutional.

“Actually, it said we can only rule on its face with respect to certain provisions that clearly violate freedom of expression. And therefore, we went on to strike down certain conditions which were vague in terms of the definition of the Anti-Terror Law,” Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen said.

“But I think you may have noticed that we did not rule on certain aspects of the Anti-Terror Law simply because we wanted to make sure that the balance between expression opinion as well as security can come out in an actual case,” he added.

Leonen said that the court appreciated that Khan understood that there is a balance between expression and security.

Meanwhile, the SC said they also talked about the Court’s strategic plan for judicial innovations and reforms.

Aside from this, they discussed the Shari’ah justice system, the increase of female judges and gender balance, and human rights.

Khan, the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, visited the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice on Wednesday.

She was welcomed by Gesmundo, Leonen and Associate Justices Amy Lazaro-Javier, Henri Inting, Japar Dimaampao, Jose Midas Marquez, and Maria Filomena Singh.

According to the SC, Khan underscored that human rights cannot exist without the rule of law during her opening statement. 

Khan is in the Philippines to examine the state of rights to freedom of opinion and expression in the country. She will be in the country until February 2. —Joahna Lei Casilao/ VAL, GMA Integrated News