Duterte signs anti-terror bill into law

AMID widespread opposition and fear it may be open to abuse, President Duterte signed into law the controversial antiterrorism bill on Friday.

In a statement, Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the President signed Republic Act (RA) 11479 or the Anti Terrorism Act of 2020 after an extensive review by his legal team.

Passage of the legislation is a sign of the administration’s commitment to stamp out terrorism, Roque said.

“The signing of the aforesaid law demonstrates our serious commitment to stamp out terrorism, which has long plagued the country and has caused unimaginable grief and horror to many of our people,” said the Palace official.

“Terrorism, as we often said, strikes anytime and anywhere. It is a crime against the people and humanity; thus, the fight against terrorism requires a comprehensive approach to contain terrorist threat,” Roque said.

With its passage, he said they expect the public will be further protected from terrorist acts.

Many individuals and groups had in recent days rejected the legislation for its alleged unconstitutional provisions, and urged Duterte not to sign it.

A human-rights panel in the United Nations joined this call on Wednesday, prompting the bill’s chief advocate, Sen. Panfilo Lacson, to point out that the measure was based closely on the UN’S own guidelines on dealing with terrorism around the world. Lacson said the UN itself had urged countries to enact effective measures against terrorism.

Minutes after Friday’s signing of the new law, Human Rights Watch (HRW) Asian Director Phil Robertson warned it would “push Philippine democracy into an abyss.”

The law “threatens to significantly worsen the human-rights situation in the Philippines, which has nosedived since the catastrophic ‘war on drugs’ began four years ago,” Robertson said.

HRW said it is now bracing for the “systematic targeting of political critics and opponents, as well as ordinary Filipinos who dare to speak out,” something it claimed is now made possible with the new law.

It urged other countries to denounce the passage or RA 11479.

Labor coalition Nagkaisa also called out Duterte for “missing his historic opportunity to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution.”

“With his signing of the Antiterror of 2020, President Rodrigo Duterte has failed his Constitutional Law test. We are disappointed with his failure to object to an unconstitutional proposal. He succumbed to the seduction of an indecent proposal,” Nagkaisa said in a statement.