News
SC consolidates suits questioning anti-terror law
The first four cases were filed by the group of lawyers Howard Calleja and former education secretary Armin Luistro, Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the group of law dean Mel Sta. Maria and several professors of the Far Eastern University (FEU), and the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives led by Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate. (File Photo By Aerous – Own work/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0)
MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) has consolidated the four new petitions filed with an earlier batch of petitions challenging the constitutionality of Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
This was confirmed by SC spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka in a message to reporters Tuesday.
The last four cases were filed by the former head of the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel Rudolph Philip B. Jurado, Christian S. Monsod, Felicitas A. Aquino, and the Ateneo Human Rights Center, two labor groups represented by the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) and the Pro-Labor Legal Assistance Center (PLACE), and the Sanlakas party-list.
The first four cases were filed by the group of lawyers Howard Calleja and former education secretary Armin Luistro, Albay Rep. Edcel C. Lagman, the group of law dean Mel Sta. Maria and several professors of the Far Eastern University (FEU), and the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives led by Bayan Muna Party-List Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.
The SC earlier required the Office of the President, several agencies under the executive department, and both houses of Congress to comment on the last four petitions seeking to stop the enforcement of the law starting July 19.
The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) which will file the comments for the Office of the President and the agencies under the executive department has reportedly received the SC resolution requiring comment on the first four cases.
However, it is not known yet whether the OSG would file a motion for extension of time to file the comment because of the filing of the four other petitions.
