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Now that the schedule has been set, the focus now is on how the members of the high court would come up with a decision on these. Considering the caliber of the lawyers questioning the ATL’s validity, will they simply brush off the arguments to put a finality on the question and allow the president to do as he wills or will they listen to the arguments and seriously put the law into question?
Progressives said that the recent moves to amend the Philippine Constitution are “but a desperate attempt of President Rodrigo Duterte to hold on to power and silence critics.”
“It is important that peace talks continue as this is one of the avenues to resolve the roots of armed conflict.”
Health advocate and community doctor Josh San Pedro said that mass testing remains important amid the increasing number of cases, and the new coronavirus variant, which is proving to be more transmissible. After all, vaccines have no 100 efficacy rate and that chances of getting infected remain.
The CPP reported that the steady expansion of the areas of operation of the NPA renders large-scale AFP operations ineffective as the government troops fail to encircle and overpower the smaller NPA units.
“The regime is setting the stage for all-out suppression of democratic rights using ‘anti-terrorism’ as pretext.”
Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said the domestic remedies are no longer enough, noting the trend of police “planting evidence” with impunity.
“They know that Rep. Zarate and the Makabayan bloc's sterling record in and outside Congress is a stark contrast to the criminally negligent and incompetent handling of the Duterte administration of the different problems of the country from the Covid 19 pandemic, to typhoons, unemployment, landlessness and others.”
“This is calculated to force Justice Leonen to resign or simply act favorably on the Marcos electoral protest. There is just no other way to view it.”
"With the worsening crisis brought about by the pandemic and the Duterte government's negligence following the calamities and the weak COVID-19 response, there is no questioning the legitimacy of the workers' and the people's protest."
Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples Lawyers (NUPL) and lawyer of Wilma Austria said this is “a politically motivated persecution and hardline attack” as it was resurrected out of nowhere after 30 years.
“Filipino youth’s strike back against Duterte’s criminal negligence today could also be seen as a parallelism to the Czechoslovakian students’ fight against the Nazi occupation."
“We must not stop because our aspirations then haven't been realized yet. We need to continue fighting for freedom and true progress for the Filipino people.”
Recently-appointed NDFP Negotiating Panel interim Chairperson Julie de Lima said the Left should “engage the (GRP’s) constitutional successor to press for the resumption of the peace negotiation as a rallying point in the effort to oust [GRP President Rodrigo] Duterte,” the Communist Party of the Philippines’ Ang Bayan reported.
"The dissent & outrage of the Filipino people will continue to grow towards this arrogant & (lack of a better term) Stupid administration, simple...hindi nyo pinakikinggan kaming mga Pilipino na ninanakawan nyo ng progresibo, matiwasay, at ligtas na kinabukasan. Ang yabang nyo!"
Many netizens said that they only wasted almost two hours of their time listening to Duterte’s speech which they described as nothing but an attack on his critics and defense of China.
“How can you be a president when you do not have an objective way of looking at the reality? It is always in relation to himself, what he likes and does not like.”
“We are outraged because the government ignores the plight of the workers and the people in this pandemic. It is more interested in suppressing freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. It is more concerned with concentrating power through the Anti-Terror Law, and if Duterte wishes so, a charter change.”
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