Harsher anti-terror law pushed

Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III pushed yesterday for harsher provisions in the country’s anti-terrorism law and the restoration of the death penalty to help the government confront extremist groups and criminal syndicates better.

Sotto was referring to the Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007, which he said was widely viewed by governments and law enforcement agencies as the weakest in the region.

From Page 1 He also cited the growing links between local terror groups like the Maute and drug syndicates that make it harder for the authorities to fight them as they already are reinforcing each other.

“I get so many requests and appeals from our law enforcement agencies and even prosecutors on how difficult it is to prosecute suspected terrorists,” Sotto told dzBB.

“Other countries see our anti-terrorism law as very lax and good for outlaws,” he said.

Sotto said the strong anti-terrorism laws in the region, like in Singapore and Malaysia, are the reason neighboring states experience less terror attacks compared to the Philippines.

The senator said among the “ridiculous” provisions that need to be scrapped or improved in the HSA include those covering arrests, which require law enforcers to pay P500,000 fine for each suspect detained without any charges being filed within a specified timeframe.

Sotto said the imposition of death penalty for heinous crimes will also deter criminal syndicates.

The amendments to the HSA and the imposition of the death penalty for heinous crimes will help minimize the need to impose martial law as what happened in Mindanao, he said.