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Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, October 17) – A list of individuals and entities designated by the Counterterrorism Council as “terrorists” will be published in a national wide-sheet format and online, giving those tagged 15 days to submit a request to be delisted.
These are among the rules and regulations implementing the Anti-Terrorism Act, posted on the Department of Justice website on Saturday.
The highly contested law gives the Anti-Terrorism Council, an executive body made up of individuals appointed by the president, the authority to designate individuals and groups as terrorists, allowing the Anti-Money Laundering Council to freeze their assets. Those appointed can only be outlawed or outlawed by the Court of Appeals.
ATC automatically adopts the consolidated list of terrorists, terrorist organizations and their funders from the United Nations Security Council. It will also attend to requests made by foreign or supranational jurisdictions regarding the designation of certain groups or individuals, a process that will be carried out through the Department of Foreign Relations.
Meanwhile, ATC will itself designate individuals and organizations as terrorists upon finding probable cause, which the IRR defines as “reasonable cause of suspicion supported by circumstances that justify a cautious person to believe” that the requirements for the resignation.
On this basis, the ATC can designate those who commit, attempt or conspire to commit any act considered terrorism under Articles 4 to 12 of the law. An entity that is owned or controlled by a designated terrorist or terrorist organization will also be designated, along with the person or entity “acting on behalf of or at the direction” of the designated person.
A list of designated individuals and entities will be published in a newspaper of general circulation and in the official online gazette and the ATC website. It should include the name of the designated person “and other identifying information”, a brief description of the case and the date of appointment.
READ: When can protests be considered terrorism?
Misidentity, other reasons for delisting
Once posted, the designated party can submit a verified opt-out request to ATC within 15 days. Reasons for delisting include the following:
• wrong identity;
• relevant and significant change in facts or circumstances;
• newly discovered evidence;
• death of the designee;
• dissolution or liquidation of designating organizations, associations or groups; or
• proof that the basis for designation no longer exists
Opt-out decisions will also be published in print and online.
The ATC, on its own, or at the request of a designated person, may also file a delisting petition with the UNSC, while other international designations can only be repealed once the foreign or supranational body in question withdraws them from the list. the list.
The designation is valid for three years, after which the ATC will review whether the basis for the designation still exists.
‘ATC has no judicial, quasi-judicial authority’
Legal experts, constitution writers and human rights defenders have called on the Supreme Court to scrap the anti-terrorism law, saying that the expansion of the ATC’s authority encroaches on the judiciary.
READ: The Counterterrorism Council will not be the ‘sole arbiter’ in the tagging and arrest of suspected terrorists – Lacson
One of the most contested provisions, Section 29, allows all law enforcement officers and military personnel authorized by ATC to arrest suspected terrorists without a warrant and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. Authorities are only required to inform the nearest trial court of the arrest within 48 hours of the arrest, with copies provided to ATC and the Human Rights Commission.
Critics said it relaxes safeguards and human rights and is open to abuse.
READ: UN rights chief asks Duterte not to enact anti-terrorism bill
The Human Security Law, the law modified by the new measure, requires that the suspect be presented to the judge after arrest without a warrant.
The TIR establishes: “Nothing in the Law shall be interpreted in the sense that it empowers the ATC to exercise judicial or quasi-judicial authority.” It adds that the designation of persons or groups as terrorists “shall be understood without prejudice to the ban.”
This implies six months of hearings by the Court of Appeals on the request of the Department of Justice to declare or outlaw a person or organization as a terrorist.
“If the Court of Appeals determines that there is no reason why the ban request can be granted, any preliminary ban will be lifted and / or the banned subject will be removed from the ATC designation,” TIR reads .
The ban, like the designation, will last for three years, after which the court will decide whether the order should be lifted or reissued. Officials have explained that the designation would not automatically warrant an arrest, while an outlaw individual or group would face stiff penalties.
Under the law, terrorist acts are punishable by life imprisonment without the benefit of parole, while those who threaten, conspire, propose and incite to commit terrorism, or are considered accomplices to the crime, receive 12 years in prison.
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