DOJ sees anti-terror law IRR completed by mid-October

FILE: Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra during a press briefing in Malacañang. TOTO LOZANO/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA – Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Thursday he is confident that his department would be able to complete the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA) by next week.

“It will be done by Oct. 14, after which it will be published,” Guevarra said in a message to reporters.

Last August, the DOJ legal team started drafting the IRR of the law signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on July 3.

The new law repeals Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act of 2007. It seeks the detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days with no warrant of arrest.

It also allows the police or the military to conduct a 60-day surveillance with an allowable 30-day extension on suspected terrorists.

The law also imposes a 12-year jail term on a person who voluntarily or knowingly joins a terrorist organization.

Solicitor General Jose Calida earlier said RA 11479 is already in effect even if the government has yet to craft its IRR.

Calida, citing precedent cases previously decided on by the Supreme Court, such as SEC v. IRC decided in 2008, said laws are not contingent on the implementing rules.

More than 30 petitions have been filed before the SC by opposition groups and individuals questioning the validity of the law.

The high court has yet to set to a schedule for the conduct of oral argument on the petitions challenging the law’s validity.

Calida has also said the law has already complied with the requirement of publication having been published in both the online and print copy of the Official Gazette as required by law.

The ATA was not only posted on the Official Gazette’s website on July 3 but was also subsequently published on the print edition of Official Gazette on July 6.