As Framers of the 1987 Constitution, we are compelled to take a strong and clear stand against a law that betrays the letter and spirit of our fundamental law and divides our people when our greatest need is to unite against a common foe, a deadly contagion that threatens not only the health of our people but their sources of livelihood. What is at stake is the survival of the most vulnerable in our society.
The Charter was drafted and popularly approved in a plebiscite in the aftermath of one of the darkest chapters in our history when the rule of law was violated with impunity. The people, long inured to the rule of despots and oppressors cast their hopes in the Constitution as the bulwark against the abuses of the State, and thus as the protector of people’s rights by limiting the exercise of the extraordinary powers of the State..
The people have enshrined the Charter to guide the restoration of democracy founded on a system of checks and balances, separation of powers, the due process of law and the presumption of innocence, and thus reasoned that the exercise of judicial power be vested in an independent judiciary, giving judges sole power to personally determine probable cause and to issue a warrant of arrest, with very limited exceptions.
The Charter deleted a weapon wielded by the dictatorship to issue arrest, search and seizure orders (the dreaded ASSO – Martial Law PD 1498) against its perceived critics. Through the Anti-Terrorism Council in RA 11479, we may be unwitting witnesses to a return to a past of unwelcome experiences. This Anti-Terrorism Act, moreover, does not provide the accused the opportunity to present evidence to the contrary in a fair hearing since the Council is empowered to unilaterally designate the accused already a “terrorist” even prior to a court determination.
The Charter rests on the foundations of a Bill of Rights that protect free speech and the right to peaceable assembly and to form associations. However, RA 11479 poses serious mishaps to the cause of civil liberties. Those who differ will be branded as recalcitrants and their silencing would have a deceptive justification. This law precisely creates a climate of fear, sends a chilling effect, on those who wish to express their legitimate grievances, state their aspirations, and wish to engage in open and democratic debate, and threatens the rights of associations who may wish to dissent and question the actuations of those in power.
We, Framers, believe that we do not need another law against terrorism at this time when in fact we have sufficient laws that can thwart terrorists and acts of terrorism.
There is no universal definition of terrorism in international law, although there are certain elements that are generally accepted by most countries. Thus, in assessing the Anti-Terrorism Act, we must look into both the content of the law and its context. Even a good law may have disastrous effects because of bad governance and weak institutional mechanisms.
“The life of the law has not been logic, it has been experience”. And our experience with authoritarianism is that it breeds little dictators in local government units and in enforcement agencies, with the poor bearing the worst abuses at the ground level. The Anti-Terrorism Act gives unprecedented powers to the administration. And we may already be on a slippery slope to authoritarianism.
It is thus time for candor — that we have a weakened system of checks and balances, that public office has been used to settle personal scores, that we have a poor record of exacting accountability from those tasked to implement our laws as in the Extra-Judicial Killings. And now may also be a good time to ask ourselves whether in fact we are an object lesson in the failure of leadership in the Executive and in the forces of public order.
We condemn this Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 which brings us back to the 1970s. We need to move forward, not backwards. We need to focus on what truly ails our people in their struggle for survival, while we deal with an inadequate public health system, mass poverty, gross inequalities, and not squander this unique opportunity of coming together as a people in the time of the pandemic.
July 6, 2020
| (sgd) Felicitas A. Arroyo | (sgd) Edmundo G. Garcia |
| (sgd) Bernardo M. Villegas | (sgd) Teodoro C. Bacani |
| (sgd) Jose Luis Martin C. Gascon |
Please persevere