Statement of Concerned Disaster Risk Reduction Organizations and Practitioners of DRRNetPhils on the Anti-Terror Law of 2020
Quezon City
DEVELOPMENT work is anchored on the 1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, where our rights as Filipino people are promoted and upheld to enjoy “independence and democracy under the rule of law and a regime of truth, justice, freedom, love, equality, and peace.”
For these reasons, we ask the public, seated officials, development organizations and private sectors to join us in our call to junk the Anti-Terrorism Law of 2020. The Act has many sections that are abhorrent to the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
The DRRNetPhils represents in the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) various disaster risk reduction organizations and practitioners, many of whom are grassroots-level, community-based, faith-based, and local groups that are duly registered to Securities and Exchange Commission and other government accreditation bodies. Many of DRRNetPhils members work in high-risk areas and conflict hotspots to provide much needed inclusive aid to the most vulnerable communities. It is not uncommon that many of the network’s member organizations duly recognized by the state experience harassment, discrimination, and red-tagging in rural areas riddled with conflict.
Per Republic Act No. 10121 or the Philippine DRRM Law, civil society organizations are recognized as key stakeholders and vital to our country’s resilience-building. But many of our fellow local humanitarian organizations experience red-tagging, even during the COVID-19 response. Even in urban areas, our members suffer from baseless and malicious propaganda that affect their operation to serve poor communities vulnerable to natural and human-induced hazards.
What development and humanitarian workers need is protection to assist the government in helping the least capacitated communities toward achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and in responding to the Sendai Framework for DRR. What we do not need are policies and laws that will only authorize further abuses, sow fear and terror that are already realities on the ground.
We encourage every stakeholder, every duty-bearer, every policy-maker, and especially the President to look back at our country’s milestones and gains. There have been hardships and struggles to learn from, written all over our history—and even now we are faced with unprecedented crisis. But while we all aim to help our country surpass all these from different perspectives, let us not forget to look at our Constitution: the guide to ensure we do not forget that we are building a just and humane society together, with social justice and human rights as our foundation.
The civil society continues to engage, take space and serve the most marginalized and vulnerable sections of the population, ensuring their needs and rights are met, upheld and protected no matter what. The culture of fear, impunity and tyranny cannot cow the CSOs as they put the communities and the affected people at the core and center of all DRRM and development efforts most especially in these challenging and trying times.
