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Baguio militants jubilant over SC sacking of CPR, EO 464

BAGUIO CITY (April 26) — Militants in the Cordillera lauded the Supreme Court in its latest moves declaring as unconstitutional the Calibrated Pre-emptive Response (CPR) and the Executive Order 464 in an earlier decision made during the high tribunal’s summer sessions here.

The SC declared the CPR null and void but sustained the constitutionality of Batas Pambansa No. 880 (BP880) 13-0 on April 25 here. This is the 2nd unanimous SC decision in Baguio City, the first was its decision which also declared Executive Order 464 unconstitutional last week.

In a press statement it issued, Tongtongan ti Umili-Cordillera Peoples Alliance (TTU-CPA) said these decisions coincided with the peoples’ clamor for the protection of civil and political liberties such as the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of the press and the right to peaceful assembly which were brazenly violated by EO 464 and CPR.

The SC decision was incorporated in a decision en banc granting partly the petitions of three groups, namely Bayan, Jess del Prado, and Kilusang Mayo Uno, et.al. in G.R. Nos. 169838, 169848 and 169881, respectively.

While CPR allows the police to be more pro-active in exercising maximum tolerance as provided for in BP880, the no permit, no rally provision still prevails. To counter this, Atty. Ismael Kahn, SC spokesperson, said, local government units are given 30 days to designate a freedom park on which rallies and demonstrations may be held without a permit.

Kahn also reiterated that if an LGU fails to issue a permit within two days from the date of application, said permit application is considered granted.

The three groups earlier assailed BP880, some of them in toto, others only sections 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 (a), and 14 (a), as well as the policy of CPR.

The groups separately cited in their petitions the violent dispersals by policemen implementing BP880 of their respective rallies and demonstrations on October 4, 5 and 6 last year.

“Through its affirmation on the unconstitutionality of EO 464 and CPR, the Supreme Court Justices have regained the peoples’ trust, amid the deepening belief that the SC, through some of its decisions, is serving in the pleasure of the president and not of the people,” the TTU-CPA said. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS

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