By the Movement Against Tyranny
June 1, 2020
Last May 29, 2020, the House of Representatives approved at the committee level its adoption, in toto, of the Senate version of the new anti-terrrorism bill titled “An Act To Prevent, Prohibit And Penalize Terrorism, Thereby Repealing Republic Act No. 9372,
Otherwise Known As The “Human Security Act Of 2007.”
By adopting the Senate version, the joint committees in the House dispensed with the various versions filed in the House and ignored the proposed amendments of its own members. House Committee on Public Order and Safety Narciso Bravo, Jr. candidly admitted during the hearing that this was being done upon the orders of the House leadership who wanted the bill approved immediately.
The measure is expected to be taken up in the House plenary for 2nd and possibly 3rd reading before Congress adjourns its second session on June 5. If approved without amendments, the bill will go straight to Malacañang for the Presidents signature and enactment into law.
A vague and overbroad definition
The bill aims to expand the already vague and broad definition of terrorism found in the existing anti-terrorist law (Human Security Act of 2008). This it does by replacing the strictly defined predicate crimes constituting terrorism (e.g. murder, arson, kidnapping, rebellion, etc.) with the following general categories, regardless of the stage of execution, as provided in Section 4 of the bill:
a) acts intended to cause death, serious bodily injury, or endangering a person’s life;
b) acts intended to damage or destroy a government or public facility, public place or private property;
c) acts intended to extensively interfere with, damage or destroy critical infrastructure;
d) developing, manufacturing, possessing, acquiring, transporting, supplying or using weapons, explosives, biological, nuclear, radiological or chemical weapons;
e) releasing dangerous substances or causing fire, floods or explosions.
The above-mentioned acts, when the purpose, by its nature or context, is to intimidate the public or its segment, create an atmosphere or spread a message of fear, intimidate the government, seriously destablize or destroy the fundamental political, economic and social structures of the country, or create a public emergency or seriously undermine public safety, will be punishable with life imprisonment without benefit of parole.
While Sec. 4 provides that terrorism excludes advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights, the exemption only applies if such acts are not intended to cause death, serious physical harm, endangers a person’s life, or creates a serious risk to public safety. Otherwise, such legitimate actions can still be considered as terrorist acts or acts in furtherance of terrorism.
Based on such a vague and over-broad definition, the bill proceeds to list several related crimes that further expands the crime of terrorism, all with extremely heavy, disproportionate penalties:
| OFFENSE | PENALTY |
| Threat to Commit Terrorism (Sec. 5) | 12 years imprisonment |
| Planning, Training, Preparing, and Facilitating the Commission of Terrorism (Sec. 6) | Life imprisonment without parole or good conduct benefits |
| Conspiracy to Commit Terrorism (Sec. 7) | Life imprisonment without parole or good conduct benefits |
| Proposal to Commit Terrorism (Sec. 8) | 12 years imprisonment |
| Inciting to Commit Terrorism (Sec. 9) | 12 years imprisonment |
| Recruitment to and Membership in a Terrorist Organization (Sec. 10) | Life imprisonment without parole or good conduct benefits |
| Being a Foreign Terrorist (Sec. 11) | Life imprisonment without parole or good conduct benefits |
| Providing Material Support to Terrorists (Sec. 12) | Same as that of principal accused |
| Accessory to the crime regardless of relationship to the accused (Sec. 14) | 12 years imprisonment |
| If a public official, additional administrative case of grave misconduct and/or disloyalty to the Republic and the Filipino people | dismissal from the service, cancellation of civil service eligibility, forfeiture of retirement benefits and perpetual absolute disqualification from elective or public office. |
Under this new definition of terrorism and its related crimes, organizers and participnts of a transport strike can be charged with terrorism for “extensively interfering” with the public transportation system, “intimidating the government” to give in to their demands, and creating a “serious risk to public safety” due to the resulting traffic and commuter congestion.
Likewise, anti-Duterte protesters who resist a violent dispersal operation can be charged with terrorism for “endangering the life” of the police and “seriously destablizing” the political order. Speakers in the said rally can be charged with threatening, inciting, or conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Finally, persons or groups who provide food, water, shelter, office space or financial support to the participants of the above activities, even their children and spouses, can be charged with “providing material support” to them or implicated as accessories.
A blow to due process and human rights
Under the biill, even the mere suspicion of involvement in terrorism and its related crimes already unleashes a string of violations of constitutionally guaranteed rights.
Sec. 29 allows the warrantless arrest and detention without charges of suspects of anywhere from 14-24 days as opposed to the explicit constitutional limit of 72 hours.
Sec. 16 allows the secret wiretapping and surveillance of a suspected person’s or group’s private communications, conversations, data, ordinary or electronic mail, information, messages “with the use of any mode, form, kind or type” of technology “in whatever form, kind or nature.”
Sec. 25 gives the Anti Terrorism Council (ATC) the power to unilaterally and arbitrarily, without proper hearing and on the mere basis of probable cause, designate an individual, group of persons, organization or association as terrorist and for the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to freeze the assets of said individuals or groups.
In addition to Sec. 25, Sec. 26 also gives the Courts the power to proscribe an organization, association or group of persons as terrorists via a “preliminary order of proscription” based on probable cause. Members of such proscribed organization can be penalized with life imprisonment without parole due to mere membership in that organization, even if they are not engaged in any overt terrorist act.
A weapon for tyranny and dictatorial rule
The anti-terrorism bill’s vague and over-broad definition, coupled with its draconian provisions, make it an ultimate weapon for abuse and tyranny. In the hands of the Duterte government, it can and will be undoubtedly used to intimidate and imprison critics, members of the opposition and political dissenters, the media, social reformers, civil libertarians and human rights advocates, and anyone that gets in the way of its tyrannical rule.
It is a threat to those opposing Duterte’s surrender of our national sovereignty over the West Philippine Sea, his murderous yet sham “war on drugs”, the criminal bungling of the Covid-19 response, the crackdown on human rights defenders, the appointment of a virtual military junta running the government, and the favored treatment of presidential relatives, business cronies and political loyalists.
Already, we are witness to how the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has linked almost all groups and institutions critical of the administration to the “communist terrorist” movement. They have maliciously accused such groups as “communist- terrorist fronts” or conspirators in imagined plots like the fantastic Red October Plot of 2018. This law will transform such malicious and absurd accusations into an open, fascist crackdown.
With Duterte in firm control of Congress and the Courts, his generals and cronies occupying the highest positions of power and influence in the Executive, mainstream media intimidated and cajoled into silence and his extensive troll operations distorting social media, the last thing we need is a law to further unleash state terror on our people.#
