STATEMENT OF THE U.P. INSTITUTE OF HUMAN RIGHTS RE: HOUSE-TO-HOUSE SEARCH AND FORCED TRANSFER TO ISOLATION FACILITIES OF ASYMPTOMATIC COVID-19 PATIENTS Secretary Eduardo Año has announced a policy to allow the house to house search of COVID19 patients and the taking of said persons to isolation facilities. This will not only literally unlock the door to warrantless searches of our homes, but also open the proverbial floodgates to other human rights violations. Sec. 2, Article III of the Constitution protects the right of the people to be secure in their houses “against unreasonable searches and seizures of whatever nature and…

Justice Leonen: ‘The rule of law is always the rule of just law, it is no code for servility’ For the first time in history, the Supreme Court held the oath-taking ceremony of bar passers over the internet, through videoconferencing. Justice Marvic Leonen, chairperson of the 2020 bar exams, gave an inspirational speech on what it means to be a lawyer. It was a speech that embodied the spirit of UP Law, the institution he graduated from and where he served as Dean from 2008 to 2011. Aside from announcing projects for easing access to the bar exams such as…

Philippine Law Review Call for Papers The Philippine Law Review is the country’s first online peer-reviewed law journal for law faculty and legal professionals. It will provide a platform for scholarship in advanced legal topics and will be led by an editorial staff of professors from leading law schools across the country. Our special inaugural issue will cover perspectives on the life, practice, and worldview of the law in this unprecedented period of a global pandemic. Authors may submit full articles or short reflections on legal issues arising from COVID-19, as well as law and legal practice in the wake…

  The recently enacted Anti-Terrorism Bill (ATB) has raised apprehensions from various sectors within the Philippines. In light of this, the University of the Philippines Institute of Human Rights (UP-IHR) director, Professor Elizabeth Aguiling-Pangalangan and senior lawyers Glenda Litong, Raymond Baguilat and Michael Tiu, Jr. drafted a Briefer entitled At a Glance: The Anti-Terrorism Bill, and a Primer: Facing Terror, to make sense of the proposed ATB. At a Glance also digests and gives a rundown of the problematic provisions under the Anti-Terrorism bill and explains its consequences from a human rights perspective. Meanwhile, the Primer provides readers with a…