Post by RYTCHZ MAGIC on Oct 6, 2005 15:37:21 GMT 9
Terror bill sparks fears of creeping martial law
Opposition, militants, Muslim bloc issue warning
First posted 00:32am (Mla time) Oct 06, 2005
By Gil C. Cabacungan Jr., Michael Lim Ubac
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the Oct. 6, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
"AN undeclared martial law" sums up the sentiments of the opponents of the draft anti-terror bill.
But the bill approved by the House committees on justice and foreign affairs on Tuesday has the full support of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Yesterday afternoon, the President herself moderated a 30-minute program aired live on public television and radio, in which lawmakers and security officials -- including APEC Counterterrorist Task Force chief Benjamin Defensor -- drummed up support for the bill and its swift enactment in Congress.
After the program, Ms Arroyo was overheard asking her officials when she was going to certify the draft bill. Gabriel Claudio, Ms Arroyo's adviser on political affairs, said the bill was "as good as certified."
Claudio told the Inquirer that all fears against the bill were "unfounded."
"It is not the intention of the bill to curtail the rights of individuals. We have global terrorist threats that we are concerned with, and that is why we need a broad and strong anti-terror law," he said.
The anti-terror bill has been sharply criticized because it provides for warrantless arrests, fines of up to P10 million, harsh penalties such as long imprisonment or death, and limits on the media's access to suspected terrorists.
Iloilo Representative Rolex Suplico said he and his colleagues in the opposition would scrutinize the anti-terror bill, which, he pointed out, was "a way of amending the Constitution."
He said the bill could lead to the "annihilation of the legitimate opposition in this country."
He also said: "We think we have already gone past the boundary of creeping martial law. We are already under an undeclared martial law."
Suplico said the undeclared martial law was indicated by these recent moves by Malacañang:
• The "no permit, no rally" policy followed by the calibrated preemptive response policy, both aimed at regulating street rallies.
• The drafting of an order by the Department of Justice for possible government takeover of key companies.
• The issuance of Executive Order No. 464, which forbids government officials from appearing in congressional inquiries without Ms Arroyo's prior consent.
• The alleged assassination plot against Ms Arroyo and the supposed "harassment" of prominent anti-Arroyo leaders.
"We should look at the complete picture," Suplico said.
Militant party-list Representatives Teodoro Casiño (Bayan Muna), Liza Maza (Gabriela), Loretta Anne Rosales (Akbayan), Crispin Beltran and Rafael Mariano (both of Anakpawis), as well as law dean Pacifico Agabin, yesterday warned against its enactment.
But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita came to the bill's defense, saying the government needed a more far-reaching law against terrorists to be more effective in preventing terrorist attacks.
Ermita said the December 2000 bombings would not have occurred had an anti-terror law been passed. He said the law would have prevented the perpetrators, who were apprehended in 1998, from leaving their prison cells.
He added that the government needed a wide coverage for the proposed anti-terror law to cover all fronts, including terrorists' sources of money, training and mobility.
Ermita also said all the fears of the public on the constitutionality of the anti-terror bill would be addressed when it goes to the plenary for debates.
In a phone interview, National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales warned not only of suicide bombers in Metro Manila but also of suicide terrorists armed with automatic rifles and determined to cause as much damage in crowded places such as malls.
"That is why I'm asking the police to tighten the security in malls and not to look only for bombs," said Gonzales who had earlier warned that two suicide bombers from Indonesia were now in the country.
Worse than US' Patriot Act
But at a forum in the House of Representatives, Agabin, law dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines, said the proposed anti-terror law was "constitutionally suspect" because it was "couched in vague and over-broad terms, in violation of substantive due process and of the right to the fair-notice clause of the Constitution."
Agabin said the bill was worse than the United States' Patriot Act -- enacted following the 9/11 attacks -- because all criminal acts in the Revised Penal Code would fall under it, thus altering the Philippine criminal justice system.
"The proposed bill tries to cast as wide a net as possible, and so it suffers not only from ambiguity but also from overbreadth," he said, stressing that it would give way to a "fishing expedition" of the police.
According to Agabin, the definition of terrorism as proposed in Sec. 3 of the bill "deviates from what is popularly understood to be the common denominator of terrorist acts: the objective is usually political, and there is a retaliatory quality to such activity against targets perceived to belong to a society of oppressors."
De facto martial rule
If the objective, as stated in the bill, is "just the creating or sowing of a state of danger, panic, fear, or chaos ..., then the proposed law will merely be a duplication of existing crimes enumerated in the penal code, with the difference that the penalties have been vastly increased to the maximum," he said.
The bill was passed Tuesday by the House committees on justice and foreign affairs.
Its consolidated version will be debated on the floor starting next week.
House leaders led by Cebu Representative Antonio Cuenco, chair of the foreign affairs committee, said that the approval of the bill had been long delayed.
He warned that the Philippines should not "wait for bigger terror attacks to convince us of the immediacy and indispensability of the law."
But Bayan Muna's Casiño said that in seeking to control the media coverage of terror groups, institution of warrantless arrests and expansion of the coverage of electronic surveillance, the measure was "a recipe, a combo meal for de facto martial rule."
Gabriela's Maza said massive opposition to the bill would subside if the administration came up with a version solely targeting transnational terrorism.
Even the Muslim bloc allied with the majority in the House vowed to block the bill's passage in the plenary.
Lanao del Sur Representative Benasing Macarambon Jr. pointed out that the definition of terrorism in the bill actually "describe[d] Muslims."
Thus, it is worse than the anti-subversion law of the Marcos regime, Macarambon said, adding:
"The solution to terrorism is not military in nature but socio-economic because poverty is the real cause of terrorism.
"I believe even freedom is entitled to self-defense."
Alluding to Representatives Casiño, Maza and Rosales, who attended the forum, Macarambon said: "This is a warning to those who oppose the government, like my friends here." With a report from Edson C. Tandoc Jr.