{"id":262321,"date":"2020-07-21T00:23:19","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T04:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=262321"},"modified":"2020-07-21T00:23:19","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T04:23:19","slug":"anti-terrorism-law-fears-unfounded-dnd-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/21\/anti-terrorism-law-fears-unfounded-dnd-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-terrorism law fears unfounded: DND chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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“We maintain that the fears of these petitioners are unfounded. But we leave the final determination to the SC (Supreme Court) if it is constitutional or not,” Lorenzana said in a message to reporters Monday. (File Photo:<\/a> Department of National Defense – Philippines\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday said fears that the newly-enacted Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act 11479) is unconstitutional and could trample on people’s rights are unfounded.<\/p>\n

“We maintain that the fears of these petitioners are unfounded. But we leave the final determination to the SC (Supreme Court) if it is constitutional or not,” Lorenzana said in a message to reporters Monday.<\/p>\n

The law, which gives more teeth to the government\u2019s fight against terrorism and violent extremism, has been questioned by critics, including several petitions before the SC.<\/p>\n

While it took effect last July 18, Lorenzana said they would wait for the implementing rules and regulations (IRR), to be crafted by the Anti-Terrorism Council and the Department of Justice, before the law can be implemented.<\/p>\n

Meantime, Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief-of-staff, Gen. Felimon Santos, said petitioners have all the right to go to the courts.<\/p>\n

“It is up to SC now to evaluate but we believe that there is nothing in the law that will defeat the people’s rights,” he said in a statement Monday.<\/p>\n

Santos said that only the people involved in terrorism have reason to fear the new law.<\/p>\n

“Only those who are in the business of committing terrorist acts as contained in the law should be afraid. Law-abiding citizens should not,” he added.<\/p>\n

It seeks the detention of suspected terrorists for up to 24 days sans a warrant of arrest.<\/p>\n

Earlier, Senator Panfilo Lacson, author of the measure, credited President Rodrigo Duterte for his strong political will in signing the \u201clandmark legislation\u201d that seeks to boost the country\u2019s drive against terrorism.<\/p>\n

It also allows a 60-day surveillance with an allowable 30-day extension that can be conducted by the police or the military against suspected terrorists.<\/p>\n

The law also imposes a 12-year jail term on a person who voluntarily or knowingly joins a terrorist organization.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday said fears that the newly-enacted Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act 11479) is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":198110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-262321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-priam-nepomuceno","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262322,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262321\/revisions\/262322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}