The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) was passed into law during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ATA is the most challenged law in the country’s recent history as nearly 40 petitions were filed before the Supreme Court questioning its constitutionality. Before its enactment, then President Rodrigo Duterte and his cohorts resorted to red-tagging anyone critical of the government.
Bulatlat covered how progressive groups and advocates pushed back against the ATA and warned of its implications on civil liberties. Unfortunately, the high court upheld the ATA. In recent years, it is being used as a weapon of choice against activists.
"...[t]here is a compelling necessity and urgency to prevent, running up to almost two (2) months before the oral arguments, any further implementation of the provisions of the assailed law as they impact on the lives, liberties and security of the petitioners and the public at large.”
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“Removing or lowering these penalties gives State authorities a free pass, if not outright approval and endorsement, for violations on human rights and civil liberties...”
Who is exempted from being labeled “terrorists?” Rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, Church people, peasants, indigenous peoples and workers have been publicly vilified by state security forces as such.
“The lockdown and the said operations are part of the Duterte administration's anti-communist hysteria, and has no objective other than to 'pacify the human rights movement in Davao, which has a proud history of advancing civil and political rights.”