MALACAÑANG on Wednesday, June 17, said President Rodrigo Duterte will be waiting for the vetting process to be finished before deciding whether to sign or veto the anti-terrorism bill.
“When he spoke about the anti-terror bill, he was saying, ‘I’m waiting for Senator Lacson to finalize his commas and periods before I sign the bill’,” said presidential spokesperson Harry Roque in an interview on ABS-CBN News Channel’s Headstart.
According to him, Duterte has not yet received the copy of the proposed measure – meaning, the Office of the Executive Secretary and the Department of Justice are still in the process of vetting it.
Roque, however, said that the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel has already finished reviewing the bill.
“There are at least three departments that are given the leeway to comment on this legislation. The most important is the Office of the Executive Secretary, specifically the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs, and of course, it’s important to listen to the Department of Justice as well,” he said.
The spokesman also assured that Duterte will be studying the provisions of the bill.
“Let’s not forget, that the president was also a criminal lawyer, a public prosecutor. He will read the bill himself and he will himself make a determination if there’s any provision that is contrary to the bill of rights and the Constitution,” Roque said.
The DOJ on Tuesday, June 16, confirmed it has finished its review of the bill and was in the process of drafting its comments to be submitted to the president.
“To the extent possible, we have considered the operational needs of the government in dealing with terrorism as well as our international commitments, without losing sight of the legal and constitutional parameters within which all state actions should be circumscribed,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.
He also said that the DOJ kept in mind “for whom and against whom the anti-terror bill was crafted” while reviewing the measure.
