Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta said yesterday that if the “Anti-Terror Bill becomes a law, then anybody, if he or she is affected, can question the constitutionality of the law” before the Supreme Court.
In an online press conference with journalists covering the courts, Peralta said the SC will then deliberate and decide on what to do with the petition once it is filed.
The action of the SC “will depend on the issues, because they might be asking only a veto of certain provisions, or the veto of the whole law, so it will depend,” he said.
“Sometimes only provisions are challenged. Sometimes they argue that this provision should have been vetoed by the President because this is unconstitutional. So, it will depend on the allegations and the issues that will be raised. It will also depend on the comment of the Solicitor General,” Peralta said.
“If there are issues factual in nature, then we usually go to an oral argument. But if the issues are merely, purely constitutional, there’s no need to determine the factual issues. Then probably, we just submit the case for decision based on the responses and pleadings of the parties.”
Congress has submitted the enrolled bill to the Office of the President for President Duterte’s signature.
Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra said that as a procedure, the President will get the opinions and recommendations of the members of the Cabinet before acting on the bill.
The ATB seeks to amend the Human Security Act of 2007. It expands the definition of terrorism to include acts intended to cause “death or serious bodily injury to any person,” “extensive damage and destruction” to a government facility, private property, or critical infrastructure and when the purpose of those acts is to “intimidate (the) general public,” “create an atmosphere or message of fear,” or “seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental political, economic, and social structures of the country.”
The bill also seeks to criminalize the “threat, planning, training, facilitating of” and “proposal” and “inciting” to terrorist activities by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, banners, and emblems. (Rey Panaligan)