Sen. Jamby Madrigal speaks her views on what she describes as “state terrorism” perpetuated by the Macapagal-Arroyo administration in this interview with German political scientist Dr. Rainer Werning conducted in March. E. San Juan, Jr. edited the transcript of the interview and wrote the introductory portion.
BY E. SAN JUAN, JR. (WITH AN INTERVIEW BY DR. RAINER WERNING)
Contributed to Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 22, July 8-14, 2007
“Huwag po nating payagan na bumalik tayo sa kadiliman at takot na dinala ng martial law. Panahon na upang tumindig at lumaban.”
— Sen. Jamby Madrigal, “Martial Law in the Guise of Anti-Terrorism Bill,” Joint Statement with Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Legend Restaurant, Oct 9, 2006
Last June 26, we attended a historic rally-demonstration of over 4,000 people in Washington, D.C. called “Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice.” It was the first national mass mobilization of this kind undertaken by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a rather staid institution, in cooperation with Amnesty International (U.S.), Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. It was a coalition representing a fairly broad spectrum of left to right civil-society lobbying groups.
A petition bearing tens of thousands of signatures was delivered to Congress expressing five demands on behalf of rights gutted by the 2006 Military Commissions Act (MCA): the restoration of habeas corpus and due process, ending torture and abuse in secret prisons, stopping extraordinary renditions (secretly kidnapping people and sending them to countries that tolerate torture), the closing of Guantanamo Bay prisons and allowing prisoners held there access to justice; and the restoration of the rule of law. The tide is turning against the rightist, neoimperialist Bush policy of gung-ho war of terror on humanity.
Together with the U.S. Patriot Act, the MCA is part of the Bush administration’s deceptive schemes to carry out the “global war on terrorism” on behalf of the corporate elite. It operates by casting aside basic democratic freedoms, chief of which is the principle of habeas corpus that protects against unlawful and indefinite imprisonment, a tenet enshrined in the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, section 9). By abolishing this doctrine of fundamental due process, the Bush regime can hold hundreds of prisoners – designated “unlawful combatants” – for more than five years without charges.
The U.S. Patriot Act and the MCA are the two weapons the fascistic Bush administration is using to fight what it calls “terrorism.” “Terrorism” for the U.S. ruling class includes the just struggles of peoples for self-determination, a right enshrined in the United Nations (UN) Charter. Nonetheless, after 9/11, the U.S. State Department branded the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) as “terrorist organizations.” With these legal instruments, Bush has the power to declare who is a terrorist “enemy combatant,” who should be held indefinitely without being charged, define what is torture and abuse, and so on. The MCA permits convictions based on evidence extracted from a witness by torture.
Numerous legislators, among them Senators Leahy, Dodd and others have introduced legislation to nullify MCA and key provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act, in particular warrantless domestic spying or surveillance through the National Security Letter provision, and other violations of free speech and privacy rights that defy the Constitution and ignore the principle of checks and balances. In short, the war on terror has been used to justify the undermining of the Constitution and the rule of law, the essential civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and basic democratic principles. Polls indicate that the majority of U.S. citizens, especially after the rejection of the war-mongering policies of the Bush leadership in the November 2006 elections, support the scrapping of the MCA and the repeal of the U.S. Patriot Act. Such laws against terrorism destroy security and civil liberties, engendering a worse kind of terror: inhumane, brutal treatment of civilians by State violence.
Revisiting Benevolent Assimilation
Meanwhile, we read in Inquirer.net (June 27) an opposite, retrogressive trend in the Philippines: the Arroyo regime is using all means to apply the anti-terrorism law, officially known as the Human Security Act (Republic Act No. 9372), which is set to take effect on July 15. This Act is patterned after the U.S. Patriot Act and the MCA, ostensibly designed to be used in the fight against what Arroyo and her U.S. patrons perceive as “terrorism.” It goes beyond the U.S. models by including under the rubric of “terrorism” the political conduct of rebellion or insurrection, which is punishable with 40 years of imprisonment. Suspects can be jailed without charges. Surveillance of terror suspects, including the use of wiretaps and tracking devices, and the freezing of the suspect’s personal assets, are unconscionably permitted by this Act. The Philippine law tries to out-do Bush’s draconian measures, already condemned by international opinion and rejected by the U.S. public.
Despite the recent claims of Deputy National Security Adviser Pedro Cabuay that the Act, considered as “the cornerstone in the Philippines’ fight against global terrorism,” will first be publicized and discussed before its application (Inquirer, 7/04), its eventual implementation seems certain. Arroyo is readying the public for the proscription of groups such as Bagong Alyansang Makabayan ( Bayan or New Patriotic Alliance), Bayan Muna (People First), Gabriela Women’s Party (GWP) and AnakPawis which are all considered “communist fronts.” One proof of this is the continuing refusal of the Arroyo regime to take command responsibility for the thousands of victims of extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances.
