Order of Carmelites

Carmelites join send-off rally for anti-ATL lawyers

/ Carmel News, JPIC / By

By Br. Ritche T. Salgado, O.Carm.

Living out its commitment to justice and peace, the Order of Carmelites in the Philippines participated in a send-off rally for the lawyers who will challenge before the Supreme Court the anti-terror law on February 2.

Since the law was signed into law last July 3, 2020, 37 petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court questioning its constitutionality.

The rally brought together peace-loving individuals from different sectors including the church, urban poor, women, youth, indigenous peoples, human rights activists, LGBTQI+ rights activists, and environmental groups among others. An ecumenical prayer led by Philippine Carmelite Prior Provincial Fr. Rico P. Ponce, O.Carm. concluded the two-hour activity which gathered

The lawyers who will argue against the anti-terror law are former solicitor general and Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Jose Anselmo Cadiz; IBP director for Bar discipline Randall Tabayoyong; Free Legal Assistance Group (FLAG) chairperson Chel Diokno; FLAG NCR coordinator and former Supreme Court spokesperson Ted Te; UP College of Law political law cluster chair John Molo; Former Bayan Muna Party-list representative and National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL) chair Neri Colmenares; NUPL secretary general Rey Cortez; human rights and women’s rights lawyer Evalyn Ursua; NUPL assistant secretary general Josa Deinla; Albay first district representative Edcel Lagman; Ateneo law professor Howard Calleja; Bangsamoro Transition Commission and former chairperson of the ARMM Regional Human Rights Commission, Algamar Latiph; and human rights lawyer Bantuas Lacman.

The Carmelites in the Philippines has, from the start, opposed this law saying in a statement issued before its signing that the law would “legitimize the abuse and violation of our constitutional rights…”

It continued: “No benefit can ever come from a law that only seeks to add more anxiety, pain, and grief to our marginalized brothers and sisters — mainly because it desires to silence the voices of those working with the poor and with those who lend their voice to the voiceless and hope to the hopeless.”