Cayetano: Activism not terrorism but terrorists should not infiltrate activist ranks

Speaker Alan Cayetano on Friday defended the controversial anti-terror bill, saying the measure is not after activists but terrorists who masquerade as activists.

Cayetano made the comments amid widespread opposition to proposed law, which President Rodrigo Duterte has certified as urgent.

The bill, now just awaiting Duterte's signature, allows detention of suspected terrorists from 14 to 24 days without a warrant and defines inciting to terrorism through means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners, or other representations.

The bill likewise removes the existing P500,000 a day penalty on police officers who will detain suspects eventually acquitted of the crime.

“Ang sabi nila (critics), activism is not terrorism. We agree with you. Ang aktibismo ay hindi terorismo. We want to promote activism, from the youngest child. That is why my late father had a show, Compañero y Compañera, saying wag magpa-api, alamin ang batas,” Cayetano said in his speech on the last day of the Second Regular Session of the 18th Congress.

“Hindi magbabago ang dapat mabago sa ating bansa kung walang aktibismo. In the same vein, terrorism is not activism. You should not allow terrorists to hide within your ranks,” he added.

Cayetano's father is the late senator Renato Cayetano.

Among the bill's provisions being questioned by its critics, which include human rights groups, is the measure’s provision allowing surveillance, including electronic, on individuals suspected of being a terrorist.

Cayetano, however, justified the measure by claiming that such a definition of who can be considered a terrorist is the same definition being used in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore.

Likewise, Cayetano invoked the provision of the bill which states that terrorism does not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action and other similar exercises of civil and political rights “which are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life or to create a serious risk to public safety.”

“They say this repression; is against democracy, draconian. No, it is not,” Cayetano said.

“Basahin niyo iyong batas. Iyong pagra-rally, hindi po tinuturing na terorismo,” he added. --KBK, GMA News