RP's Anti-Terrorism Bill Casts Shadow Of Fear On Militant Groups

DAVAO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 21 Feb) – A militant party list group, Anakpawis, expressed fear Wednesday that political repression and summary killings will escalate in the Philippines once President Gloria Arroyo signs the Anti-Terror Bill (ATB) into law.

Lawmakers allied with Arroyo approved the ATB in a special session this week.

"As soon as Mrs. Arroyo signs the ATB, political repression and killings will escalate as it would now have legal justification," Editha Duterte, spokesperson for the Anakpawis in the southern Philippines, said in a statement sent to the Mindanao Examiner.

She said hundreds of political activists were killed since Arroyo assumed the presidency in 2001.
The human rights group Karapatan says that 832 extra-judicial killings since 2001 can be blamed on the security forces. Of these, it says 356 are left-wing activists.

Authorities tagged militants and progressive groups as fronts of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing the New People’s Army.

“The continuous tagging of the Arroyo government that progressive party lists and organizations are fronts of the armed revolutionary movement gives outright license to its armed forces -- Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police and paramilitary groups -- to perpetrate these senseless killings and harassment. The ATB would be the best weapon to quell legitimate dissent,” Duterte said.

A U.N. special rapporteur Philip Alston sent to the Philippines to investigate the killings accused Philippine Army of being “in a state of almost total denial” about the wave of political murder.

According to the Counsels for the Defense of Liberties (CODAL), the Senate version of anti-terrorism bill, which was adapted by the Lower House during the Bicameral Committee, “contains more repressive provisions on surveillance, opening and freezing of accounts, and other threats on civil liberties which may be used by the executive to persecute dissenters,” she said.

“Most of the provisions are not only constitutionally infirm but also violates the international human rights law and the principles of international criminal law, which makes the Senate version worse than the House bill, or any other law in Philippine legal history,” Duterte said.

Aside from Anakpawis, the militant party list groups Bayan Muna and Gabriela, also opposed the anti-terrorism bill. (Mindanao Examiner)