6 petitions vs anti-terror law junked

MANILA, Philippines - Six petitions questioning Republic Act (RA) 9372, the Human Security Act of 2007, have been dismissed without the Supreme Court (SC) discussing the legality of the law.

The petitioners were the Southern Hemisphere Engagement Network Inc., Kilusang Mayo Uno, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and Bagong Alyansang Makabayan-Southern Tagalog.

Voting unanimously, the SC justices said the petitioners could not question RA 9372 since they are not facing any charge under that law.

“RA 9372 has been in effect for three years now,” read the SC decision.

“From July 2007 up to the present, petitioner-organizations have conducted their activities fully and freely without any threat of, much less an actual, prosecution or proscription under RA 9372,” it added.

The petitioners said they have legal standing to file the suit as taxpayers and that the government suspects them as communist fronts.

However, the SC ruled that the petitioners failed to prove that they have incurred actual, imminent or direct injury as a result of the implementation of RA 9372.

No actual controversy would warrant the SC’s intervention on the implementation of the anti-terror law, the decision added.

The SC said the claim of the petitioners that they have been under surveillance or were being tagged as communist groups does not “approximate a credible threat of prosecution” under RA 9372.

“The possibility of abuse in the implementation of RA 9372 does not avail to take the present petitions out of the realm of the surreal and merely imagined,” read the decision.

“Such possibility if not peculiar to RA 9372 since the exercise of any power granted by law may be abused.

“Allegations of abuse must be anchored on real events before courts may step in to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable.”

Under RA 9372, the law seeks to penalize conduct, not speech, the SC said.

The decision was penned by Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Concurring were Chief Justice Renato Corona, and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Antonio Eduardo Nachura, Arturo Brion, Lucas Bersamin, Roberto Abad, Jose Perez, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Mariano del Castillo, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Mendoza and Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is on official leave.