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Republic Act No.
11479 is an an act to prevent, prohibit, and penalize terrorism,

thereby repealing Republic Act No. 9372, otherwise known as the “Human Security Act
of 2007”. The act then is known to be the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020”. The Act was
passed by the Senate of the Philippines as Senate Bill No. 1083 on February 26, 2020,
and adopted by the House of Representatives as an Amendement to House Bill No.
6875 on June 5, 2020, respectively (The Eighteenth Congress, 2020). Signed by Allan
Peter S. Cayetano- Speaker of the House of Representatives, Vicente C. Sotto III –
President of the Senate, Jose Luis G. Montales – Secretary General of the House of
Representatives , and Myra Marie D. Villarica- Secretary of the Senate. Approved on
July 03, 2020 by the President himself, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, the act contained 58
sections containing the declaration of policy, designation, and its hallmarks on unlawful
acta to whom the law shall be of function. The anti-terror law is said to be the
government’s stepping stone to putting an end to all the terror conflicts within the
country. However, the ratification of the act never went pleasing to the public opposing
to how the name of the act sounds, most especially to the critics of the administration.
The law was passed as a more wide-ranging replacement of the country’s 2007
Human Security Act, which only penalized direct terrorist acts and conspiracy to commit
terrorism. Alongside its expansive definition of terrorism and the broad remit given to
Duterte’s anti-terrorism council, the law allows for people who propose or sympathize
with terrorism to be detained or charged. “For the law-abiding citizen of this country, I
am addressing you with all sincerity, do not be afraid if you are not a terrorist,” the
President himself said during one of his nation addresses (Aspinwall, 2020). As the
backers defended, the legislation seeks to end terrorism in the country, which is still
battling decadeslong communist and Islamic insurgencies (Venzon, 2020). Presidential
Spokesperson Harry Roque even said that the signing of the law demonstrates the
administration’s serious commitment to stamp out terrorism, which has long plagued the
country and has caused unimaginable grief and horror to many of the Filipino people
(Deutsche Welle, 2020).
However, local and international rights groups have raised concerns the law will
serve as a gut punch to an already reeling Philippine democracy, considering how the
War on Drugs has brought concerns of human rights institutions locally and
internationally. Now, the controversial Anti-Terror Act does appear to attract more
concern and attention. All the while, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights said the bill "dilutes human rights safeguards, broadens the definition of terrorism
and expands the period of detention without a warrant from three to 14 days, extendible
by another 10 days. The vague definitions in the Anti-Terrorism Act may violate the
principle of legality" (Venzon, 2020).
On February 2, 2021, as many as 37 petitions were filed by different civil society

groups against the controversial Anti-Terror Law. Since the inception of the law and its
passage in July 2020, rights groups have been up in arms about what they see as
draconian provisions and intentions (Beltran, 2021). Beltran continued to cite attorney,
law professor, and former dean Tony La Viña’s explanation on the “law’s most
contentious provisions” which are “ for one, the definition of terrorism, which is made
very general, drawing no lines between dissent and terrorism. And then the provision
that allows for longer detention without an arrest warrant or judicial intervention” which
apparently seemed very dangerous to him. Maria Ela L. Atienza, a political science
professor at the University of the Philippines, Diliman also took to say “There are no
specific provisions about improving the intelligence and evidence-gathering capacities
of agents of government. What the law does is to strengthen the powers of the
executive-dominated anti-terrorism council, removing many of the oversight powers of
the judiciary and the legislature” (Aspinwall, 2020). just a month after the effectivity of
the feared anti-terror law and the filing of the petitions, the Free Legal Assistance Group
(FLAG) pleaded the Supreme Court to issue a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
often issued to stop laws or policies whose legality is in question (Buan, 2021).
Furthermore, CNN Philippines published an article on March citing the concern

on deficient police and intelligence performance. The ratification of the law seemed
unreasonable. This is based on former Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz statement
saying the Human Security Act of 2007, which was apparently repealed by the new law
was enough to deter terrorism (CNN Philippines Staff, 2021) if to strengthen police and
intelligence performance. He even further said that what is really lacking is good police
work and good intelligence work, solely lacking in our jurisdiction. Albay Rep. Edcel
Lagman also raised his cocnern, voicing not only the Anti-Terror Law to be unreasnable,
but also uncocnsitutional. The anti-terrorism law, he said, violates the 1987 Constitution,
particularly the rights provided for under the Bill of Rights (CNN Philippines Staff, 2021).
It violates 15 of 122 items in Bill of Rights (Buan, 2021).
Several petitions filed by opposition senators, human rights lawyers, journalists,

student organisations, and other groups are currently pending before the Supreme
Court. Some of the petitions move to strike down the Act in its entirety while some seek
to nullify specific provisions only, the most common of which is the definition of
“terrorism” or the acts that constitute “terrorism.” According to the petitioners, the
definition of terrorism is vague, unclear, and sweeping such that it is prone to abuse.
Unlike the old anti-terrorism law hat enumerates specific predicate crimes for terrorism
such as of piracy, rebellion, coup d’etat, murder, hijacking, etc., the acts constituting
terrorism under the Act are said to be very broad such that its enforcers “will have
unbridled discretion to select the targets of the new terror law including those from
among critics and the opposition” (Sy, 2020).

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Republic Act No.

11479 is an an act to prevent, prohibit, and penalize terrorism,

On February 2, 2021, as many as 37 petitions were filed by different civil society

Furthermore, CNN Philippines published an article on March citing the concern

Several petitions filed by opposition senators, human rights lawyers, journalists,

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