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Will it be enough to straighten out its vagueness and overbreadth, as argued by petitioners? Or should the high court’s magistrates strike it down due to vagueness and overbreadth that can bring more harm than the evils it promises to destroy?
“When does it become wrong to protect our lands? When does it become wrong to go to school, to learn and to dream of becoming a graduate?”
Ironically, cases against red-tagged individuals are being dismissed by government courts for lack of probable cause or because of insufficient evidence. Motions to quash search warrants were also granted by the courts, declaring whatever so-called evidence the police have acquired during the search as inadmissible.
“Simply put, the AFP and Philippine National Police (PNP) had no solid, intelligent basis before launching massive operations in a rural sitio in Nasugbu, Batangas in April 2020."
It has been two months since the Philippine government began its vaccine rollout but the country is far from inoculating at least one percent of the population as public hesitancy on vaccine efficacy and safety remains.
In their 26-page complaint, Canlas's children Jennelle and Joseph narrated how their father was denied immediate access to emergency medical care despite their repeated pleas.
"The police and military were first to get salary increases, while teachers are forced to make-do with their meager salaries."
“An urgent and decisive action from the Supreme Court is a matter of life and death for activists and human rights defenders especially now when we are being increasingly targeted in the government’s counterinsurgency and counterterror campaign for our work and causes."
Karapatan called the ATC a 'copy-paste' of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) that ‘incites violence’ now legitimized by the Anti-Terror Law.
“There is nothing most fearful, most oppressive and most unjust than the way political prisoners are being treated under this regime.”
“How can the ATC, three years hence, claim to have ‘verified and validated information’ against these peace consultants when it has already been proven in court that there is none? The ATC regurgitating false assertions has been a most dangerous weapon especially in the heat of oral arguments on the terror law.”
“The victory of the Bakwit School 7 is a testament to the truth and the legitimacy of the calls of the Lumad and the existence of the Bakwit School. This victory only proves that the NTF-ELCAC only peddles lies and that their stories bear no truth nor any weight when it comes to the fight for social justice."
“Under a regime that takes pride in treason, tyranny, mass murder and plunder, the legal standards are degraded to the level of murderers and the standard of learning is also demeaned when Marxism or communism is merely equated to terrorism.”
Renato Reyes Jr. of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said the designation "is arbitrary, no clear standards, no specific terrorist acts cited, just a sweeping accusation."
Esperon, who sits as the vice-chair of the terror council, refused to provide Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe the names of those they will designate as terrorists as it may preempt the ATC.
“It is not merely provocation. What I fear about is the phrase ‘provoke the government’ is too vague so as to include any kind of provocation. It did not say that to provoke a government to do or to abstain from doing an act. Just it stated that to provoke the government."
A daughter's last conversation with her dying father and the abominable situation inside the Angeles city jail that led to another death of a political prisoner. Joseph Canlas was the ninth under the Duterte administration and the fourth since the COVID-19 pandemic.
"This function is within the High Court’s judicial duties to protect the right to life and health of those in government custody. They include the political prisoners like Joseph Canlas who had various comorbidities like diabetes and hypertension but was never tested for COVID-19 until he was brought to the jail’s quarantine section.”
"The state’s brutal fascism killed Canlas who was exposed to COVID while in detention and under the custody of the BJMP [Bureau of Jail Management and Penology]. His unjust detention led to the swift deterioration of his health condition."
“This is a matter of survival to us, because we need to bring back good governance,” said retired Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.
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