Shivani Gadhavi –
Published On: December 09, 2021 at 18:30 IST
The Supreme Court of Philippines on December 9th, 2021 declared two parts of the much-debated Anti-Terrorism Act as unconstitutional, which disappointed many social activists and human rights organizations who fear that this Law might hamper with personal and civil liberties of citizens.
Even when the Philippines is under threats from terror organizations and Islamic extremism within the country, there are lawyers and social organizations who seek total scrapping of the anti-terrorism law as according to them it threatens civil liberties and may help the current government to oppress the opposition political parties.
The President Rodrigo Duterte led Government stands by the legislation and notes that ‘law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear’. The Government stated that it will be determined to fight terror threats and refrained from making any further statements.
The Supreme Court of Philippines also announced the unconstitutionality of a certain provision which allowed the anti-terrorism council, which would be appointed by the President, to consider any kind of requests made by international organizations or organizations from within the country, to identify certain groups and individuals as terrorists.
The National Security Adviser and Vice-Chairman of the anti-terrorism council – Hermogenes Esperon, opined that, “the government would respect whatever the court decided.”
A group of social activists and legislators expressed their dismay and stated, “The Supreme Court missed the opportunity to defend the Filipino people’s human rights and democracy, you don’t defeat terrorism by terrorizing the people and stifling their Rights. The answer to non-state terrorism is not state terrorism.”
