Published February 7, 2021, 3:30 PM
A group of lawyers has urged the Supreme Court (SC) to include during the resumption of the oral arguments on the 37 petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) set on Tuesday, Feb. 9, the issue on the “threat” to sue journalists under the new law.
Petitioners against the Anti-Terror Act arrive at the Supreme Court on the first day of the Anti-Terror Law Oral Arguments on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2021 (JANSEN ROMERO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The “threat” hurled by Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Southern Luzon Command chief Antonio Parlade Jr. has been manifested last Friday by retired SC Associate Justices Antonio T. Carpio and Conchita Carpio Morales and their group in a pleading.
Southern Luzon Command head Lieutenant General Antonio Parlade Jr.
(PCOO / MANILA BULLETIN)
This was demanded by the members of the Concerned Lawyers for Civil Liberties (CLCL). Among its members are former Vice President Jejomar Binay, former Sen. Rene Saguisag and former University of the Philippines Dean Pacifico Agabin.
In a statement issued Sunday, Feb. 7, CLCL said: “We call for a stop to this wanton and unrestrained attack on the people through red-tagging that has led to the death of the victims in many occasions… because Parlade’s acts constitute as threats to the lives and security of many.”
Parlade is also the spokesperson of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC).
By ANNA FELICIA BAJO, GMA News
Published February 4, 2021 8:51am
Updated February 4, 2021 9:23am The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Thursday denied that it is the practice of the military to torture civilians, insisting that troops respect human rights in accordance to their mandate. The act that our soldiers are accused of is a serious allegation that is neither a policy nor a practice. As a matter of fact, AFP regulations mandate that we respect human rights and abide by the law of armed conflict, AFP spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo said in a message to GMA News Online. Deinla had said two Aetas were supposedly tortured by government forces as a form of reprisal for the death of a soldier during an encounter with rebels in Zambales in August 2020.
(MANILA BULLETIN)
National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) president Edre U. Olalia said in a statement: “This is a big favor he is giving us which is awfully unwelcome and outrageously unacceptable. Thanks but no thanks.”
The NUPL’s statement was in response to Parlade’s Facebook post on the inquirer.net article written by Tetch Torrez-Tupaz entitled “Tortured Aetas seek SC help against anti-terror law.”
Tupaz’s article stated that two Aetas, who claim to have been tortured by the military and detained over trumped up charges following their arrest in Zambales, sought to be included among the petitioners asking the Supreme Court (SC) to declare ATA as unconstitutional.