BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
July 4, 2007 – 1:13pm
At least a hundred activists under the umbrella of the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance) marched earlier today, Philippine-American Friendship Day, near the U.S. Embassy in Manila to protest the U.S. War on “terror” and the impending implementation of the Human Security Act of 2007 (HSA), also known as the Anti-Terror Law.
The protesters described the HSA as a “United States imposition” on the Philippine government.
The U.S. government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, embarked on what it calls the “borderless” war on “terror” almost six years ago, using as pretext the Sept. 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City allegedly by Afghan extremists belonging to the Taliban. Its anti-“terror” drive has since stretched to Iraq, where it has led among other things to the ouster and execution of the country’s former president Saddam Hussein.
Both the Taliban and Hussein regimes were supported for years by the U.S. government. The U.S. helped the Taliban’s resistance against Russian occupation of Afghanistan and it armed the Hussein government in the latter’s conflict against Iran, which is at odds with the U.S. government. This was before the U.S. waged wars of aggression to gain a foothold in oil-rich Central Asia, to secure oil and gas pipelines in the region, and to control the oil and gas reserves of Iraq.
The Arroyo government is part of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing,” a coalition made up of governments that support the U.S. anti-“terror” war, particularly its controversial invasion of Iraq.
“We expect the Arroyo government to use the Human Security Act as some kind of offering to the U.S., a show of support for the already-discredited U.S. war on terror,” said Bayan secretary-general Renato Reyes, Jr. “Fil-Am Friendship Day is a sham. It will be all about the Bush-Arroyo partnership in the war on terror.”
The HSA, which was passed by Congress earlier this year, is set to take effect on July 13 – although Malacañang has announced a possible delay in its implementation supposedly to enable the finalization of implementing rules and regulations.
Among the acts classified as “terrorism” in the HSA are rebellion, insurrection, and coup d’ etat, which are violations of Art. 134 of the Revised Penal Code.
The Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA), which are engaged in armed struggle against the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP), are both listed as terrorist” organizations by the U.S. Department of State. With its propensity to tag militant organizations such as Bayan and its affiliate organizations as “front organizations” of the CPP-NPA, the Arroyo government may use the HSA to clamp down on these organizations, human rights advocatesd and civil libertarians have warned.
The League of Filipino Students (LFS) denounced the HSA as a measure that would worsen human rights violations. “Besides the curtailment of civil liberties, the (Anti-Terror) Law shall be used to legitimize the use of terror by the Armed Forces against progressive organizations,” said LFS chairman Vencer Crisostomo.
The protesters intended to stage their rally in front of the U.S. Embassy. They were, however, stopped by some 30 policemen at the corner of T.M. Kalaw and A. Mabini Streets – about a hundred meters away from the embassy.(Bulatlat.com)
