Locsin to UN rights chief: Read anti-terror bill

Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. yesterday asked the United Nations human rights chief to read the Philippines’ “carefully crafted” Anti-Terrorism Act, as he lashed out at critics of the measure who deliberately mistake the facts.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay, Locsin said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet should read carefully the proposed 2020 Anti-Terrorism Act and show exactly the gray areas separating criticism, criminality and terrorism.

“She should read it. It’s very careful. What I’ve seen there is basically what Ping Lacson and I wrote in our time of Congress. I can’t argue with those who deliberately mistake the facts. They should read the law and show exactly where it is,” Locsin said.

In an address to memberstates in Geneva, Switzerland on the opening day of the Council’s 44th session, Bachelet raised serious concerns over proposed new anti-terror legislation now before President Duterte for signing into law.

The proposed 2020 AntiTerrorism Act “dilutes human rights safeguards, broadens the definition of terrorism and expands the period of detention without warrant from three to 14 days, extendable by another 10 days”, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights report insisted.

“The recent passage of the new Anti-Terrorism Act heightens our concerns about the blurring of important distinctions between criticism, criminality and terrorism,” Bachelet said.

“The law could have a further chilling effect on human rights and humanitarian work, hindering support to vulnerable and marginalized communities… So I would urge the President to refrain from signing the law and to initiate a broad-based consultation process to draft legislation that can effectively prevent and counter violent extremism, but which contains some safeguards to prevent its misuse against people engaged in peaceful criticism and advocacy,” Bachelet said.

“The anti-terror law which was so carefully crafted by the likes of me just read it. That law needs to be passed because how do you complain about police abuses if you don’t actually get a law that punishes specific acts,” Locsin stressed.

Bachelet said the Human Rights Council should consider supporting new accountability measures against perpetrators of extrajudicial killings in the Philippines’ war on illegal drugs.

Bachelet’s appeal followed publication of a report by her office indicating that many thousands of people and possibly more than 25,000 have been killed in police and vigilante operations since the launch of the government’s ‘Double Barrel’ campaign, on July 1, 2016 through Jan. 31 this year.

In February 2018, the International Criminal Court announced that it intended to open a preliminary examination of the situation in the Philippines and analyze crimes allegedly committed by the state since July 2016, in the context of the “war on drugs” campaign.