THE Supreme Court has decided to hear the petitioners and respondents in the petitions seeking to scrap the implementation of Republic Act 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) of 2020 for being unconstitutional.
SC spokesman, lawyer Brian Keith Hosaka, said the magistrates agreed to allow the parties to defend their positions before the Court during their regular en banc session on Tuesday.
“The Supreme Court will be conducting oral arguments on the third week of September, at the earliest. Proper notices will be issued once the date is finalized,” Hosaka said, while noting that the six new petitions filed recently have been consolidated with the previous petitions.
The six last petitions will be consolidated with the 19 petitions earlier filed before SC.
Only 25 petitions have so far been docketed at the SC, since two other petitions filed by separate groups in Mindanao that were earlier reported filed before Court were actually filed through mail.
Once it is received by the Court, the two petitions are expected to be docketed and consolidated with the other petitions.
Oppositors of the ATA of 2020 argued that the definition of terrorism under the law is “vague and overbroad” which may be used as “a weapon against constitutionally protected speech and speech-related conduct.”
The petitioners noted that the ATA creates the new speech crime of inciting to terrorism under Section 9 and then ties it to a new definition of the crime of terrorism which is found in Section 4.
The ATA’s definition of terrorism, according to the petitioners, encompasses speech and conduct protected by the Constitution, including non-violent assemblies like the 1986 People Power.
All the 25 petitions are seeking to nullify Sections 5 (threat to commit terrorism); Section 6 (planning, training, preparing and facilitating the commission of terrorism); Section 9 (inciting to commit terrorism); Section 10 (recruitment to and membership in a terrorist organization); Section 11 (foreign terrorist); Section 12 (providing material support to terrorists); Section 25 (designation of terrorist individual, groups of persons, organizations or associations); Section 26 (proscription of terrorist organizations, associations or group of persons); Section 27 (preliminary order of proscription); and Section 29 (detention without judicial warrant of arrest).