ATC CAN STILL FILE CASES OF TERRORISM IN THE REGULAR REGIONAL TRIAL COURTS EVEN IF THE SUPREME COURT DID NOT DESIGNATE SPECIAL TERRORISM COURTS
21 January 2008
Pursuant to the Resolution issued by the Supreme Court (SC) denying the request of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to desigante special courts that will only handle terrorism cases, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC), through its Spokesperson Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said that ATC can still file cases of terrorism in the regular regional trial courts despite the SC's denial of said request. The non-designation of special courts will not affect the filing of cases just the same.
Last October 3, 2007, the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) requested the Supreme Court for the designation of Special Terrorism Courts pursuant to Paragraph 8 Section 54 of the Human Security Act of 2007 (has) which states that the ATC SHALL “Request the Supreme Court to designate specific divisions of the Court of Appeals and regional trial courts in Manila, Cebu City and Cagayan de Oro City, as the case may be, to handle all caes involving the crime of terrorism or conspiracty to commit terrorism and all matters incident to said crimes.”
The request was made pursuant to and in compliance with the law.
Usec. Blancaflor also stated that in the year 2007, the HSA was specifically applied to a very limited number of days because of the holding of two (2) National Regular Elections namely: the May 2007 National and Local and the October 2007 Barangay Elections. He said that under Sec. 62 of the HSA, “the provisions of this Act shall be authomotically suspended one month before and two months after the holding of any election.”
For 2008, however, as there are no scheduled elections, the law can be fully implemented.
The Supreme Court had earlier assigned special divisions of the Court of Appeals (CA) to hanld requests for surveillance and freezing of bank accounts. These are:
- Metropolitan Manila and Luzon – The First, second and Third Divisions;
- 2. Visayas – The Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Divisions; and
- 3. Mindanao – The Twenty-First, Twenty-Second and Twenty-Third Divisions
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