It is the so-called anti-terrorism laws that are terrorizing the people and it is time to repeal them, human rights defenders demanded.
On the fifth anniversary of the signing into law of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (Republic Act No. 11479, ATA), human rights groups held a protest rally at the Department of Justice on Thursday to call for the repeal of the law, as well as the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act (Republic Act No.10168, TFPSA).
Rights group Karapatan said of 227 individuals have been arbitrarily designated or charged with violations of ATA and TFPSA, 30 of whom are still detained.
“These laws have become instruments of repression that authorities have aggressively used to target grassroots activists, human rights defenders, development workers, community leaders, and innocent civilians,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) said in a statement.
Signed in July 2020, BAYAN said the ATA was clearly intended from the start to enable the brutal campaign of the government to silence dissent by criminalizing, first and foremost, the work of social activists and various cause-oriented groups.
The alliance of national democratic organizations said that, in truth, it is the Rodrigo Duterte and Ferdinand Marcos Jr. governments that have terrorized rural communities through nonstop military operations in the name of counterinsurgency.
The Manila government uses such “draconian laws” instead of addressing the roots of the armed conflict with the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army, it said.
BAYAN said both laws support the militarist approach that is based on the US counterinsurgency model that successive governments have applied against the revolutionary movement.
It said that under this model, trumped up charges based on planted and fabricated evidence are filed against unarmed critics and all those who dare to oppose the anti-people policies and programs of the state.
“The intensified use of anti-terror laws to suppress the opposition reflects the normalization of lawfare and the existence of a de facto Martial Law in the country,” it said.
Various United Nations experts have also called on Malacanang to conduct reviews on both laws, noting that both have been mostly used against government critics and civil society organizations.
Dozens of organizations also questioned ATA’s constitutionality when it was newly-signed into law by Duterte in 2020.
The Supreme Court however declined to rule on RA 11479’s conformity with the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, saying no injury have yet to be cited given it had to be implemented at the time.
But after five years, the ATA as well as the TFPSA have caused untold suffering to hundreds of victims.
Bayan said its leaders, members and allied groups are among those who have been demonized as terrorists, unfairly tagged, and baselessly charged under both laws.
“We vow to work tirelessly for the repeal of these draconian laws and call on the Commission on Human Rights, Congress as well as local governments to probe the enforcement of these laws which have resulted in grave human rights abuses,” its statement reads.
“Marcos has repeatedly claimed that he is different from Duterte but they are both guilty of relying on repressive measures to quell the people’s pushback and resistance against tyranny, abuse of power, plunder, injustice, and foreign domination,” it adds. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)