THE Supreme Court (SC) has declared two portions of the Republic Act (RA) 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act, as unconstitutional.

In an advisory issued by the agency’s Public Information Office (PIO) on Thursday, December 9, 2021, it said the SC en banc, voting 12-3, shot down the qualifier provision of Section 4 of the law that goes: “...which are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life, or to create a serious risk to public safety.”

It was declared as unconstitutional for being overboard and in violation to the freedom of expression.

The en banc, voting 9-6, also declared as unconstitutional Section 25, Paragraph 2 of RA 11479, which states that: “Request for designations by other jurisdictions or supranational jurisdictions may be adopted by the ATC after determination that the proposed designee meets the criteria for designation of UNSCR No. 1373.”

“On the basis of the current petitions, all the other challenged provisions of RA 11479 are not unconstitutional,” the PIO said.

“The main ponencia and the various opinions contain interpretations of some of the provisions declared in these cases as not unconstitutional,” it added.

The decision and separate opinions for the explanation of the votes will soon be publicized.

The feared RA 11497 was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on July 3, 2020 and took effect on July 18.

It was tagged as the “most contentious law” with 37 petitions filed to declare it unconstitutional before the SC. (SunStar Philippines)