Palace condemns stabbing attack on lawyer in anti-terror law petition

Video courtesy of PTV

Malacañang on Thursday denounced the stabbing attack on the lawyer of a petition challenging the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that President Rodrigo Duterte signed last year. 

Rights lawyer Angelo Karlo Guillen was stabbed on his head and shoulder by two unidentified mask-wearing in Iloilo City late Wednesday, surveillance footage showed. 

"We condemn that attack in the same manner that we condemn any attack that seeks to violate the right to life," said Palace spokesman Harry Roque. 

"We consider na itong pag-atake sa isang abogado ay mas karumaldumal dahil inaatake din nila iyong rule of law," he said in a press briefing.

(We consider this attack on a lawyer more gruesome because it assails the rule of law.) 

The Palace called on law enforcers to find the people behind the assault. 

Guillen is assistant vice president in the Visayas of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers. He is the lawyer in a petition of groups led by the NUPL against the anti-terror law. 
 
Critics say the law would allow the detention of terror suspects for up to 24 days without charge, for vaguely defined terrorist crimes. 

To date, 37 petitions against the law have been filed at the high court since its signing in July.

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