The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in a comment it filed before the Supreme Court (SC) on Friday assured there is nothing to worry about the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 set to be implemented today as it is meant to protect the lives of Filipinos.
It was the SC that directed the OSG as legal counsel of the government to file the comment in response to several petitions challenging the constitutionality of the act seeking to stop its implementation.
The OSG stressed the law is “needed to fight the continuous and aggressive security threats brought about by terrorism.”
“This stems from the general duty of all States to protect individuals under their jurisdiction against interference in the enjoyment of their human rights,” it explained. “More specifically, the enactment of this law is part of the Philippines’ obligation to ensure respect for the right to life and the right to security.”
So far, there are nine petitions filed before the SC challenging the Anti-Terrorism Law, all of which, according to the OSG relies "primarily on baseless allegations of vagueness of the law, unjustified fears of abuse, and imagined conjectures."
These petitions were filed by a group of lawyers led by law professor Howard Calleja; Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman; the House of Representatives’ Makabayan bloc; a group of law professors of the Far Eastern University (FEU);) the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR); former Government Corporate Counsel Rudolf Philip Jurado; human rights advocates led lawyer Christian Monsod; the Sanlakas party-list; and and labor groups composed of the Federation of Free Workers, Nagkaisa Labor Coalition, Church Labor Conference, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Uni Global Union-Philippine Liaison Council, and the Kilusang Artikulo Trese.