Photo credit: The Pinoy.net
From ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio
Last week, the House Committees on Public Order and Safety and National Defense and Security jointly considered bills for the amendment of R.A. 9372 (“The Human Security Act of 2007”), the country’s anti-terrorism law. These bills are H.B. 7141 (“An Act Amending Republic Act No. 9372 entitled “An Act to Secure the State and Protect our People from Terrorism,” otherwise known as the “Human Security Act of 2007”) and H.B. 5507 (“An Act Declaring as Unlawful the Membership in any Philippine Court-Proscribed or United Nations Security Council-Designated Terrorist Organization and Providing Penalties Therefor”), both introduced by Rep. Amado Espino, Jr. of Pangasinan.
The bills are being fast-tracked as part of the priority legislative agenda of President Duterte. The two committees have already conducted two hearings on the measures. In both instances, only the law enforcement and national security agencies were invited, with no participation from human rights groups, civil libertarians, lawyers’ groups, and other concerned citizens. A technical working group will be convened during the break to come up with a consolidated draft.
The bills argue that the safeguards against abuse of human rights and civil liberties built into the current anti-terror law have rendered it useless and propose major revisions that will purportedly empower law enforcers in confronting terrorism.
The bills provide for a much broader and less rigorous definition of terrorism; place the military on equal footing with police in law enforcement; allow for proscription of individuals and organizations as terrorists and seizure of assets without trial; criminalize mere membership or intended membership in proscribed organizations; impose the death penalty on certain acts, despite existing treaty obligations prohibiting the Philippine state from doing so; remove safeguards against abuse of surveillance powers granted to law enforcement officials; remove safeguards against abuse of prisoners while in detention; extend the period of detention without charges under certain circumstances from 3 days to 30 days; and introduce restrictions on free expression.
These bills pose a serious threat to universally recognized and constitutionally guaranteed rights and liberties, including the right to life, liberty, property, privacy, free association, free expression, and due process. If enacted into law, they will provide the Duterte administration with vastly expanded powers for suppressing dissent and cracking down on critics and opponents in the name of fighting terrorism.
We call on all citizens who value and uphold human rights and civil liberties in our society to stand with us in vigorously opposing the passage of these measures.
