The Anti-Terror Bill and why Muslims in the Philippines are afraid of it

FOR those who are wondering why ordinary poor Muslims are afraid of the Anti-Terror Bill (ATB), read on. If not interested, skip this post because it is lengthy.

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“Is this how the Philippines conducts its anti-terror campaign?”

This was the subject heading of a press release I issued on behalf of two Manila-based lawyers’ organizations in 2007 (see below). The victim or supposed “terrorist” was eventually ordered released by the prosecutor for lack of probable cause. The case did not even go to trial. But the victim still had to experience being unlawfully detained, kept incommunicado, and tortured to confess.

Kaharudin’s case is one of many — of manufactured evidence, of innocents being set-up, of torture — all in the name of waging an anti-terrorism campaign. It shows why the Muslim community here have apprehensions about the ATB. If the abuse perpetrated on Kaharudin and others are all too common even without an anti-terror law, imagine what would happen if the authorities are given more powers to decide on a person’s freedom, when mere “suspicion” and not even probable cause is enough to detain a person.

It will be open season on Moros.

Read the press release we issued more than ten years ago to get an idea of how the anti-terror campaign is waged here and why ordinary Moros are apprehensive about the ATB. Ask any Moro lawyer who intervened in terrorism cases (Alga, Raissa, Edil, Musa, etc) and they will tell you the modus of the authorities are very similar.

The case of Kaharudin and many others prompted me to ask myself whether authorities are really interested in going after terrorists? Or are they more interested in grabbing any convenient Moro patsy and then presenting him to the media and public as proof that they are doing something? In one case handled by another lawyer, the authorities were so confused about the identity of one person named in their intelligence that they decided to arrest two persons.

By the way, an idealistic and newly minted lawyer from the Ateneo helped me on this and was on it until the case was resolved, Ras Mitmug. Three female lawyers from UP also lent a hand, one of whom is now with the diplomatic corps, the other one at one time was with the Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process, and another one went to Mindanao to immerse herself in the work of NGOs. **************************

For follow up questions: Atty. Malang (0928-6793200)

(Zainudin Malang is a lawyer from Mindanao who spent years on deployment in acute emergencies in East Africa and the Middle East. Before that, he was the founding head of a human rights and civilian protection organization in Mindanao and was one of the five members of the peace process monitoring body)