THE ALLIANCE of Concerned Teachers maintained that the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 should be completely declared unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld most provisions of the law and scrapped two provisions.

“As we observe the International Human Rights day today, we join the rest of the Filipino people in their steadfast defense of rights and freedoms from the fascist and tyrannical Duterte regime. While we have gained some wins in the Supreme Court’s resolution of the cases against the ATL, the vast majority of its dangerous provisions were upheld. And so we must strengthen our unity and continue to fight the good fight,” Raymond Basilio, the group’s secretary general, said.

The group said that the “draconian” measure poses grave threats to educators, unionists, and students.

It claimed that even before the law’s passage, the education sector had been subjected to various forms of “state-perpetrated attacks” such as red-tagging, profiling, harassment, and unjust arrests.

“With the ATL mostly being upheld, coupled with the rabid red-tagging task force or the NTF-ELCAC, we can only expect state terrorism to intensify while our just demands are still unmet. The already dismal state of education and other services will also likely plummet as the country’s resources will be pulled into funding the government’s newly boosted war on the people. We cannot and will not allow this to happen,” Basilio said.

The group pledged to further strengthen its ranks and continue to advance the welfare, rights, and liberties of the education sector.

“As educators, we teach and live by the principles of social justice, and thus we must continue to take action against all threats to our liberties—especially  amid grave health and socio-economic crises,” it said.