Law-abiding citizens need not fear terror law – Duterte
Law-abiding citizens need not fear the anti-terrorism law, President Duterte said yesterday, as he maintained that the controversial measure would provide the country “muchneeded legal weapons” to combat terrorists. In his first remarks on the measure since it was enacted into law, Duterte noted that terrorists have staged bombings and have wreaked havoc in Mindanao. “(The law will provide)
the much-needed legal weapons that we need to fight terrorism because terrorism does not involve one or two gun shots. As what happened in Mindanao and in other places, mostly in Mindanao, they are using bombs,” the President said in a televised address early yesterday morning.
“And for the law-abiding citizen of this country, I am addressing you with all sincerity: do not be afraid if you are not a terrorist, if you do not seek to destroy the government, bomb churches, bomb public utilities... just to derail and topple the nation,” he added.
Various groups claim that Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, signed by the President last Friday, will suppress free speech and will be used to target critics of the government.
At least six petitions challenging the legality of the law have been filed before the Supreme Court (SC).
Petitioners have asked the court to declare as illegal various provisions, including those that enumerate acts of terrorism; punish persons who threaten to commit acts of terrorism, incite others to commit terrorism through speeches, writings, proclamations, banners or other representations and recruit people to join terrorist groups; and allow the pre-trial detention of suspected terrorists.
Duterte said he expected critics of the law to challenge its legality before the high court.
He, however, clarified that the law would not be used against those who write articles critical of the government.
“I never filed a case even during (my time as) mayor, I did not charge anyone. I just take it... because that is what my father said,” the President said.
“And it was succinctly uttered once by General (Delfin) Lorenzana when he was still active (in the military service): ‘In the government, the one who gets angry is the one who loses,’” he added.
‘Communists are terrorists’
Duterte also assailed communists, whom he claimed want “to be treated with another set of law.”
“The left and the communists, they think we are always thinking of them... I know that we are also thinking of other matters; as a matter of fact, they are the least that we are spending our time,” he said.
“That’s the problem there... They think they are a different breed. They would like to be treated with another set of law, when, as a matter of fact, they are terrorists. They are terrorists because… I finally declared them to be one. Why? Because… I spent most of my days as a President trying to figure out and connect with them on how we can arrive at a peaceful solution,” he added.