Pacquiao won't allow authorities to abuse anti-terror law

Presidential candidate Senator Manny Pacquiao on Tuesday said he would not allow authorities to abuse the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 if elected in the 2022 elections.

“'Yan pong terror law ay kung naabuso po ay bakit payagan natin. Amyendahan natin nang hindi maabuso. Pero kung naabuso ang karapatan ng bawat tao ay bakit natin papayagan,” Pacquiao said during the Peace and the Presidentiables Forum.

(If that Anti-Terror Law is being abused then why we would allow it. Let’s amend it so it would not be abused. If it the rights of the people are being abused why we would allow it.)

Pacquiao was one of the senators who voted for the approval of the anti-terror bill. President Rodrigo Duterte signed the law in July 2020.

A total of 37 petitions seeking to nullify the measures have been filed against it, making it one of the most challenged laws before the Supreme Court.

In December last year, the Supreme Court declared two parts of the controversial law as unconstitutional including a qualifier in Section 4 and the second paragraph of Section 25 of Republic Act 11479.—AOL, GMA News