MANILA, Philippines — Eleven groups of development and humanitarian workers on Friday asked the Supreme Court to nullify the anti-terrorism law for impeding humanitarian and environmental protection work.
The Coordinating Council for People’s Development and Governance (CPDG) Inc. and its member-organizations asked the SC to strike down the entire Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 “for being contrary to the Constitution.”
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“The implementation of RA 11479 will surely worsen the present human rights situation and so petitioners have no other recourse but to put their trust on the Supreme Court as the faithful guardian of the fundamental law,” the petitioners said.
The groups told the court: “The CPDG and its co-petitioners believe that the Anti- Terrorism Act will seriously hinder its members from continuing their development work for it will legitimize all the harassments many of its members are experiencing now including red-tagging, abduction as well as incarceration on trumped-up charges, and even extra-judicial killings (EJK)."
READ: Cheat sheet on the looming legal battle on the anti-terrorism law
Impeding humanitarian work
CPDG argued that the anti-terrorism law impedes the conduct of development and humanitarian work.
The petitioners raised that the “government’s failure to address poverty and the inaccessibility of social services” especially to people who are in the countryside paved the way for NGOs like them provide alternative livelihood programs for them—but their work “earned the ire of the government,” they added.
“Rather than encouraging support and allowing these projects and programs to flourish, the government forces have maliciously equated these projects as means to support their so-called 'terrorists’ organizations' and maliciously suspecting these voluntary humanitarian effort as material support and aid to communist insurgency,” they added.
The petitioners stressed that community workers were put under surveillance, threatened and harassed by government workers through trumped up complaints filed against them. The passage of the law will only legitimize these, they said.
“The aid, projects, programs and infrastructure development in the communities that they are capable to deliver to benefit the people can be branded as ‘support for terrorist activities’. In fact, in line with its counter-insurgency campaign, the government has already impeded the flow of development projects by these NGOs,” their petition read.
Even work of environmentalists will be put at risk of being red-tagged. They stressed that environmental workers go to far-reaching communities to give aid and lectures, on impacts of environmental degradation. They also cited the killing of Leonard Co, a botanist and plat taxonomist, who was killed because he was mistaken to be a member of the New People’s Army while doing his research.
“The environmental work extended by the petitioners and similar organizations will be taken against them under Section 12 and 13of R.A. 11479 for it will be branded as support for the so-called “communist-terrorist activities,” the petition read.
The petitioners are composed of development and humanitarian workers, environmentalists, farm workers, agriculturists, scientists, consumers and children’s rights advocates.
On the SC’s official list of petitions against the ATA, this would be the 33rd; two more petitions filed by groups from Mindanao through registered mail have yet to be received by the court.
The SC last month said the petitions are set for oral arguments, but date has yet to be determined.