Malacañang warned vs implementing anti-terror law sans ‘safeguards’

By Angie M. Rosales

07/12/2007

Malacañang yesterday received a warning from an opposition leader against implementing the anti-terrorism law that will formally take effect on Sunday as the executive is yet to fully comply with the “requirements” dictated by this law.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said the law, or the 2007 Human Security Act, cannot be imple-mented by July 15 because some of the “safeguards” that he and the other authors of the HSA had put in place regarding disseminating information to the public on the contents of the law are yet to be met by Malacañang.

“Without the amendments that I introduced, the original version would really be beyond doubt a very oppressive mea-sure,” Pimentel told reporters.

An author of the law, along with Senate President Manuel Villar Jr., he was referring to the printing of the entire copy of the HSA not only in news-papers of national circulation but also in having it announced through the broadcast media.

Pimentel said the law also provides that any arrests of a suspected terrorist will have to be approved by a division of the Court of Appeals in order to preempt any pos-sible abuses by the police and the Anti-Terror Council (ATC).

He pointed out that this division of the CA is yet to be created by the Supreme Court.

Besides, Pimentel said, there is no reason whatsoever

is no reason whatsoever to rush the enforcement of the highly-unpopular law even amid supposed terrorist threats as there are sufficient laws still in existence under the Revised Penal Code that could address the situation, whatever will be the crime committed.

“The point is, it is not automatic that the law could be implemented by them (Malacañang), just like that,” he added.

Also, Pimentel said, the matter of the insurgents being automatically labeled as “terrorists” should be clarified as there is no such provision to this effect in the HSA.

He said the anti-terrorism law does not define what constitutes terrorism but only states the acts that can be considered terrorist acts.

Pimentel cited a provision in the Constitution on the right of so-called terrorists to resist such labeling.

Malacañang, however, has insisted that President Arroyo can implement the anti-terrorism law even without implementing rules and regulations (IRRs)that the HSA so requires.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, during a press briefing, also yesterday said government lawyers had assured them that the IRRs are not needed.

Ermita added the lawyers told Malacañang that the law is “self-executory by just reading the provisions.”

He allayed fears on warrantless arrests and other possible violations of human rights, citing the roles of the CA and the ATC in the implementation of the law.

For his part, Press Secretary and concurrent presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye also yesterday said the implementation of the HSA will restore peace in the countryside where, he added, tourism and commerce are held hostage by the evil designs of terrorists.

“Rather than criticizing the government for lapses in a law that is yet to be implemented, let us join hands instead in fighting terror,” Bunye said.

“The cost is simply too high for us to maintain a status quo where deterrence, protection and justice are not strong enough to ensure our people’s safety,” he added.

Bunye also assured lawmakers and the public that the HSA “will not be used against members of the opposition and civil society who air their views in the spirit of democracy which we all commit to nurture and uphold.”

The repeal of the anti-terrorism law was sought in a bill filed also yesterday by newly-released Anakpawis Rep. Crispin Beltran.

Beltran, who was released last Tuesday after being detained for 16 months on charges of rebellion, filed three other bills – on the repeal of the expanded value-added tax law, on the legislation of a P125 across-the-board wage increase for workers in the private sector and on increasing salaries of government employees by P3,000 across-the-board. Sherwin C. Olaes and Gerry Baldo

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