Sal Panelo wants Duterte to sign new anti-terrorism law

By Prince Golez

The chief legal counsel of President Rodrigo Duterte is pushing for the signing of the new anti-terrorism legislation into law, which has triggered national outrage.

The measure was transmitted to Malacañang last Tuesday for Duterte’s signature.

Fears that the measure would be used to suppress free speech and legitimize human rights violence are “misplaced,” Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said in an interview over ANC Thursday.

“They have to read the entire law and correlate every provision. They cannot be picking up one provision and they cry foul or they express fear and apprehension for some draconian measures that do not even exist except in their minds,” added Panelo.

An arrested suspected terrorist, according to him, may challenge the lawfulness of his detention even on the first day of arrest.

“He can go to the Supreme Court and file for a writ of habeas corpus questioning the legal basis under which he is being detained or arrested… He can go to the Supreme Court by filing a petition [for] a writ of amparo… He can in fact file a petition for bail. Remedies are there,” the Palace official explained.

Reacting to claims that the anti-terror council (ATC) can authorize the arrest of suspected terrorists, Panelo said that it does not have judicial or quasi-judicial powers.

“Before a police officer can have proof or evidence against a suspected terrorist, he must gather evidence. That is precisely why under Section 16, he has go to ATC to ask permission so that he can apply with the Court of Appeals. The judicial intervention is under Section 16. Section 29 only refers to Section 16 meaning when the police officer or military agent has already gotten a judicial order to survey, to wiretap, to record, then the police officer can exercise the provision under the rules of court which says he can arrest,” he added.

Under the proposed law, the ATC is chaired by the Executive Secretary and composed of the National Security Adviser, and the Secretaries of Foreign Affairs, National Defense, Interior and Local Government, Finance, Justice, and Information and Communications Technology, and the Executive Director of the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)