Anti-Terror law to worsen gov't abuses, violations –victims

Advocates and victims of human rights violations on Saturday shared their grave concern over the new “draconian” Anti-Terrorism Act, which they warned would “worsen the Philippine government’s human rights abuses and violations.

In a virtual press conference led by the Ecumenical Voice for Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (EcuVoice), representatives of families of drug war victims, peasant and indigenous communities, trade unionists, lawyers, faith-based formations, human rights defenders, and the political opposition raised alarm over the “dangerous implications of the Anti-Terrorism Act on the worsening climate of impunity under President [Rodrigo] Duterte” as outlined in the recent United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) report on the Philippines.

“We wish to express our sincere appreciation for Michelle Bachelet and all of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights who have brought attention to the plight of our families and communities,” said Llore Pasco, mother of two drug war victims, on behalf of Rise Up for Life and for Rights.

Despite the creation of a so-called inter-agency panel on the killings in the government’s drug war, with the signing of the Anti-Terrorism Act, Pasco said, “We find it hard to be hopeful that things are going to get better for human rights under this administration.”

Meanwhile, detained Senator Leila de Lima said that with Duterte’s signing of the law, the President  added to “his toolkit a weapon to further stifle criticism and dissent against him and muffle calls for truth and accountability for his regime’s abuses and ineptitude.”

It added that “it is a prescription straight from the dictator’s playbook.”

Church leaders such as National Council of Churches in the Philippines General Secretary Bishop Reuel Marigza also condemned the Anti-Terrorism Act as “a travesty against God's will, a sacrilege and a threat to God's gift of human dignity. President Duterte's signing it into law shows he does not listen to the people, especially our Moro sisters and brothers who appealed for him to veto the Act, but to his coterie of generals and other sycophants.”

Katribu officer Beverly Longid, likewise, welcomed the UN HRC report and its recommendations, saying that the signing of the Anti-Terrorism Act puts indigenous organizations and communities in more danger.

“In response to our work, the government openly accused our leaders as terrorists or communist supporters or sympathizers. The military refers to our communities and territories as ‘red’ or ‘rebel areas,’ ‘communist infested,’ and ‘NPA strongholds’ and our Lumad schools as rebel schools. This has led to the militarization of our territories and countless civil and political rights violations of killings, arrests, and torture,” Longid said.

For his part, Sonny Africa of the IBON Foundation stressed that “the Duterte administration’s concern for the social and economic rights of the people is just for show and ends when profits of the few are affected.”

Africa further said that “we are in the worst public health and economic crisis in the country’s history, yet the government still insists on grandiose infrastructure projects, debt service to creditors, subsidizing corporate profits and now terrorizing the people through this draconian law, instead of containing the pandemic, treating COVID-19 patients and giving emergency relief.”

The representatives of the groups jointly stated that “the draconian and insidious Anti-Terrorism Act — which, without a doubt, will be used to launch a crackdown on activists, human rights defenders, and on anyone who demands justice — only exposes and underscores the glaring hollowness of the so-called efficacy of domestic mechanisms and how they undermine the struggle to pursue accountability. Now, more than ever, an independent international investigation into President Duterte’s heinous crimes against the Filipino people is urgently needed.” — DVM, GMA News