Suggests submission of documents instead
(Eagle News) — The Office of the Solicitor General is moving for the cancellation of the oral arguments on the petitions against the Anti-Terrorism Law set in September.
In calling for the same in its very urgent motion filed on Monday, Aug. 24, the OSG noted the “logistical restrictions and health threats posed by the COVID-19 pandemic,” and the provisions of the Internal Rules of Court and pertinent jurisprudence that it said warranted the cancellation.
For the first, the OSG noted that even if videoconferencing was allowed, this would still entail a gathering of lawyers, which would make it difficult to enforce the social gathering measures stipulated by the government.
According to the OSG, the holding of the event through videoconferencing will still entail a gathering of lawyers and parties, and so far, public gatherings are prohibited.
Even then, it said the online event may be disrupted by an “uneven” quality of internet connections, suggesting that documents be submitted by all parties instead.
The OSG also noted that the petitioners’ “obscure allegations of sporadic ‘surveillance’ and supposedly being tagged as ‘communist fronts’ in no way approximate a credible threat of prosecution,” adding that the High Court was merely being “lured to render an advisory opinion, which is not its function.”
“Without any justiciable controversy,” it added “the petitions have become pleas for declaratory relief, over which the Court has no original jurisdiction.”
It added there has been no determination yet as to whether or not the petitioners had a standing to sue.
“It is submitted that at the very least, a ruling on the above-discussed matters should precede anything else, so as to avoid the validation of petitions that militate against basic constitutional, procedural , and jurisprudential tenets, petitions deserving of nothing but outright dismissal,” the OSG said.