The Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) was passed into law during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
ATA is the most challenged law in the country’s recent history as nearly 40 petitions were filed before the Supreme Court questioning its constitutionality. Before its enactment, then President Rodrigo Duterte and his cohorts resorted to red-tagging anyone critical of the government.
Bulatlat covered how progressive groups and advocates pushed back against the ATA and warned of its implications on civil liberties. Unfortunately, the high court upheld the ATA. In recent years, it is being used as a weapon of choice against activists.
"...[t]here is a compelling necessity and urgency to prevent, running up to almost two (2) months before the oral arguments, any further implementation of the provisions of the assailed law as they impact on the lives, liberties and security of the petitioners and the public at large.”
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“The Anti-Terror Act of 2020 tramples on our basic human rights and it is unconstitutional. It does not provide us safeguards and protection from terrorism. If anything, it is the very tool that creates all-out terror among the people.”
Despite gaining broad opposition, Karapatan Secretary General Cristina Palabay said President Duterte still signed it into law as "his time is running short and opposition to his fascist rule is growing stronger by the day that he now desperately needs the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to conduct his all-out crackdown on dissent."
"The advancement of broad, vague and overly abrasive definition and legislation relating to terrorism can have the opposite of the intended effect which is that by silencing voices, by cracking down on civil society, by weakening the due process and protections offered by the criminal justice system that doesn’t strengthen the States by rather weakening the due process protections offered by the criminal justice system -- that doesn’t strengthen the States but rather weakens it in the long run.”
“Worrisome are the expanded and vague definitions of a “terrorist;” the powers given to the Anti-Terror Council to designate a group as a “terrorist group;” the weakening of the protection of one’s privacy and the safeguards against arrests and detention without warrants.”
“Allowing this administration, the added leeway and greater authority that come with a newer, more oppressive anti-terrorism law would open the floodgates to graver forms of abuses. The dangers that come with the Anti-Terrorism Bill are all too real to be ignored, and we cannot and should not wait until the final nail in the coffin has been hammered down.”
Members of the religious community are among those who have opposed and joined the growing clamor to stop the signing into law the controversial anti-terror bill, saying this will threaten the people’s “hard won freedoms.”
Despite warnings from Malacañang that joining protest is prohibited, thousands braved the rains and joined the party-themed protest against the anti-terror bill.
Independent artists were among those who took the streets on Thursday, June 3, 2020, to protest the looming passing of the Anti-Terror bill.
Who have been declared “communist-terrorists” by state security forces and the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict? Practically all sectoral organizations advocating for reforms and genuine change. They did not spread terror or cause panic among the public but called on the government to act on legitimate demands of ordinary citizens.
Farmers, indigenous peoples and teachers have been tagged as terrorists and subjected to various forms of attack since Duterte assumed office. The Anti-Terror Bill, if enacted into law, would only escalate what they describe as “state terror” and would target ordinary citizens for merely exercising their constitutional rights.
“The legislation can be used to violate people rights in the same way the Bayanihan Act was used for mass arrests of ECQ [enhanced community quarantine] violators. Only the anti-terror law is 100x worse.”
“The [anti-terror] bill provides powers to the executive branch that properly belong to the judicial branch.”
Labor groups and other progressive organizations held a protest action today outside the House of Representatives March 3, demanding the scrapping of Anti-Terror Bill.
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