THE WIDELY opposed Anti-Terror Bill was signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte on July 3. All protests and rallies to oppose the bill were flicked away by the strongman’s stroke of a pen, as he sat comfortably in the Palace by the murky Pasig River.
Retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio, acknowledged by many as the “best chief justice we never had,” said the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, with its many unconstitutional provisions, will place the country “permanently under a situation worse than martial law.”
Most contentious, as observed by many, is Section 29, which allows the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) to authorize the arrest of persons merely “suspected” of committing terrorism, a violation of our Constitution’s requirement that a warrant of arrest should be issued by a judge upon finding of probable cause.
Section 4 (a) of the law vaguely defines terrorism as committed by a person who “engages in acts intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person, or endangers a person’s life,” while 4 (b) says a terrorist “Engages in acts intended to cause extensive damage or destruction to a government or public facility, public place or private property.” Mass protests and rallies may be equated with these acts, according to Commission on Human Rights (CHR) Commissioner Gwendolyn Pimentel-Gana
Moreover, the detention of a suspect for as long as 24 days without being charged of any crime in any court, under Section 29, is eight times longer than the three-day maximum detention period mandated by our Constitution.
Section 25, which empowers the ATC to designate persons or organizations as “terrorists” without due hearings and Section 34, which allows the house arrest of suspects even if they are entitled to bail, are also in violation of the Constitution and are too vague and broad, according to Carpio.
Another alarming provision, Section 10, states that “Any person who shall recruit another to participate in, join, commit or support any terrorism or a terrorist individual or any terrorist organization, association or group of persons… or designated by the United Nations Security Council as a terrorist organization, or organized to engage in terrorism, shall suffer the penalty of life imprisonment without the benefit of parole…” This gives the ATC the power to deem a group as terrorists even without official proscription of the Court of Appeals.
The anti-terrorism bill would seem irrelevant to someone who is not concerned of political affairs, but the possibility that our freedom of speech will be, if not censored, stripped off from us, should leave one anxious. The new law adds the following as acts of terrorism: threatening, planning, training, facilitating, proposing and inciting to terrorism; it’s the last part that deals with freedom of speech.
Any criticism of the government could lead to anyone being tagged as a terrorist and arrested by the all-powerful ATC without a warrant. This law must be a treat for the Palace instigators, who now have the power to detain a suspected terrorist without any liability for damages due to wrongful arrest. This gives them a reason to have a mañanita every night.
Instead of working on the passage of economic bills that will help the Filipino people in this time of pandemic, our government had the audacity to approve and deem the anti-terror bill as urgent. Also taking precedence over the health emergency and economic crisis are the shutdown of ABS-CBN, one of the country’s top media outlets, which jeopardized the jobs of 11,000 workers; and the proposal to change the name of the country’s airport to Paliparang Pandaigdig ng Pilipinas, at a time where no one is even allowed to leave the country!
These unconstitutional provisions are also dangerous because these may be prone to abuses by those tasked to enforce the law. The government has a poor track record in protecting people’s rights and enforcing security laws. Who’s to say that citizens will be safe against harassment under this Anti-Terrorism Law? Rappler’s Executive Editor, Maria Ressa, was charged with cyber libel despite the article in question being published four months before the cyber libel law was passed. The VIP violators of quarantine protocols, in contrast, are scot-free.
Human Rights Watch has warned that this law could give security forces the power to arrest anyone – journalists, activists and social media users – by simply linking them to terrorist activities. They can do this under the law’s provisions on surveillance and wiretapping. If one is tagged as a terrorist, all messages, calls, social media accounts and precise location can be traced by the government. The emergence of fake accounts on Facebook had one thing in common – they mimicked the accounts of users expressing their opinions about our failed government. It could be a preview of things to come.
The timing of this law makes one feel angry, confused and cheated on by the people who should be respecting our opinions and rights. They say this is about security, but what it will do to citizens is to give them insecurity.
