Scores of protesters, ignoring appeals and warnings from government officials and the national police, on Friday flocked to the University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City which coincided with the celebration of the country’s 122nd Independence Day.
Screen grab from ABS-CBN.
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The protest action by militants and other leftist groups was dubbed “Grand Mañanita” rally to dramatize the rallyists’ sentiments against the passage of the anti-terrorism bill and the recent birthday celebration of National Capital Region Police Office director Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas, who earned the ire of the public for violating the protocols of the enhanced community quarantine.
Among those who joined the protest rally were members of the Congress of Teachers/Educators for Nationalism and Democracy, Movement Against Tyranny, Gabriela Youth, Anakbayan-Albertus Magnus, Kilusang Mayo Uno, Concerned Artists of the Philippines, College Editors Guild of the Philippines and Anakpawis.
Protesters were seen holding placards calling for the ouster of President Rodrigo Duterte. They are also urging the national government to conduct mass testing amid the threat of COVID-19.
Critics fear the anti-terrorism bill would give Duterte sweeping powers to stifle dissent, adding it would create a council of presidential appointees that could order warrantless arrests of people they deemed terrorists.
According to them, the bill, if signed into law, would allow for weeks of detention without charge.
Activists fear the legislation could open the door to a crackdown on Duterte’s opponents.
“They (authorities) shouldn’t fool us that this terror bill is for terrorists. It’s for all of us,” said Neri Colmenares, an activist and lawyer.
Groups such as the kidnap-for-ransom gang Abu Sayyaf would continue killing regardless of the legislation, Colmenares told protesters who had ignored police warnings they were breaching coronavirus restrictions.
Protester Ana Celestial said she feared the bill would be the “death of democracy for all of us.”
The legislation defines terrorism as intending to cause death or injury, damage government or private property or use weapons of mass destruction to “spread a message of fear” or intimidate the government.
Suspects could be held up to 24 days without charge in violation of a three-day limit in the Constitution, said rights group National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers (NUPL).
The vague wording of the bill gives “almost absolute power to designate – even wrongly, mistakenly or maliciously – groups as ‘terrorists,’” NUPL said.
The United Nations’ human rights office has also criticized the legislation, saying in a recent report that it “dilutes human rights safeguards.”
But government officials say the alarm is overblown, citing provisions that exempt “advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work… not intended to cause death or serious physical harm.”
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said last week that “anybody who makes peaceful protests, they’re not terrorists.”
Authorities argue the Philippines needs additional powers to battle the multiple armed groups that regularly carry out attacks on police and civilians.
However, watchdogs note that on top of granting new powers to authorities, the legislation also strips away old safeguards.
The act would do away with penalties against law enforcement agents of up to $10,000 for every day a suspect was found to have been wrongfully detained, Human Rights Watch said.
In a related development, the militant fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas, which joined the protesters, said: “We fight for our right to rally. Not even a threat from the police will stop us to gather in streets and air our sentiment against the repressive measures of the government such as the anti-terrorism bill.”
“Unlike Chief Sinas’ birthday bash along with dozens of party cops, we did not violate any health protocols. This proves that we can still exercise and assert our democratic rights without compromising the health safety of each other,” Fernando Hicap, Pamalakaya national chairperson, said during the protest.
At the same time, several celebrities joined rallyists during an online Independence Day protest calling on the government to defend the Philippines’ rights in the West Philippine Sea, as well as junking the anti-terrorism bill, which they said threatened freedom of speech.
President Duterte should fulfill his campaign promise of defending the West Philippine Sea from Chinese incursion, actor Enchong Dee said.
“It’s unacceptable to say during the campaign that you will go to Scarborough Shoal, and say that it’s just a joke once you win the elections,” he said, referring to how Duterte dismissed as a joke his promise of riding a jetski to hoist the Philippine flag in disputed waters during the 2016 presidential campaign.
“What’s that? Are we just a joke? That’s unacceptable. We are Filipinos. We are counting on you to protect us,” said Dee.
For her part, actress Agot Isidro questioned the government as being lenient on China’s illegal militarization of Philippine islets when an international arbitration court already invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the strategic waterway.
In 2016, a Hague-based arbitration court awarded the Philippines a legal victory, invalidating China’s sweeping claims over the South China Sea.
“We won the arbitration case… but why does it seem that we are just giving our islands away? Why does it seem that we are at the mercy of other countries?” said Isidro.
“Today is Independence Day, but it seems that we are not yet free. We are not yet truly free because the face of the enemy and conqueror just changed,” Isidro said.
Celebrity musicians Ebe Dancel, Noel Cabangon and Bayang Barrios also participated in the “Ipaglaban ang Pinas!” virtual protests.
Meanwhile, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the proposed ATB, if signed into law, would be the government’s “powerful weapon” against terrorists in the country.
“After a careful and thoughtful review of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, this representation has recommended the approval and the signing of the proposed legislative measure to the President,” Panelo said.
Panelo said there is an “urgent need” to strengthen the law against terror acts for the preservation of national security and the promotion of general welfare.
“The proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 will serve as a powerful weapon against participants of these lawless actions, the threat of which is extremely imminent during our current times,” he said in a press statement.
In a letter addressed to Duterte, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, and Congress, the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) said the international community was “alarmed by the apparent abuses of power and civil unrest that the law will bring about.”
“It will suppress and criminalize free speech and dissent, label and punish political enemies as terrorists, and unjustly deprive them of basic internationally recognized human rights and due process,” the IADL said.
The lawyers urged Guevarra, whose department is studying the bill, to reject it on constitutional and procedural grounds. They also called on members of Congress who voted in favor of the bill to withdraw their vote.
Panelo issued the statement as critics continued to question the constitutionality of the anti-terror bill.
Critics are claiming that the anti-terror bill could be used to quash dissent.
Panelo stressed that the anti-terrorism bill was intended “solely against terrorists.”
He ensured that Filipinos who peacefully would dissent against the government’s policies would not be targeted. Thus, critics’ concerns are “more imagined than real,” Panelo said.
“Fears which were raised by certain sectors are more imagined than real. We therefore ask them to study its provisions carefully and discuss the same with legal experts so they can understand fully the spirit of the bill,” he said.
The enrolled copy of the bill, which seeks to repeal Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act of 2007, was transmitted by Congress to Duterte’s office on Tuesday.
Malacañang has since begun the review of the provisions of the proposed anti-terror law. With AFP
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