Protests Against Anti-Terror Act
July 16, 2007
Bearing placards calling for the "defiance of state terror", left-wing demonstrators and human rights activists took to the streets of Manila to protest against the anti-terror law.
The law allows suspects to be kept under arrest for at least three days without formal charges. According to the law, "terrorist activities" include all those which cause "extensive fear and panic".
Rights abuses
That's the official version. But critics fear President Gloria Arroyo and her government want to keep their opponents in check.
"This law will stamp on the rights of citizens," said Carol Araullo from the left-wing umbrella group Bayan. "The government will use it to remove its political opponents. It's almost the same as non-declared martial law."
The new Human Security Act 2007 is supposed to please the United States, which considers the south-east Asian country an important ally in its global "war on terror". The Philippine government has long been fighting a war militant Islamists and Maoist guerillas.
But for human rights activists and political observers both nationally and internationally, the law is just another sign that the human rights situation is worsening in the Philippines.
800 dead
According to the NGO Karapatan, over 800 people have been killed since Gloria Arroyos came to power in 2001 -- mainly left-wing activists, trade unionists and journalists. And a further 200 are still missing.
Increasing political murders and extra-judicial executions have already raised concern. In February, the UN's Special Rapporteur Philip Alston on Extra-Judicial Killings visited the country and strongly condemned the military.
He said the argument that the army was behind many of the murders was very convincing. But the military claimed that Communist rebels were behind the deaths and rejected the allegation.
Safety clauses
Meanwhile, the government has tried to dispel criticism of the Anti-Terrorism Act. Ricardo Blancaflor, the Under Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence and Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) spokesman said that surveillance was allowed in the "whole civilised world" and yet it was "very difficult to get permission for it in the Philippines".
"This new act has so many safety clauses and we have to keep to the normal legal procedures," he said.
One of the clauses states that each person who is wrongly arrested will get 500, 000 pesos (ca. 11,000 US dollars) damages for each day in custody.
For the relatives of people who have been killed or disappeared, this is adding insult to injury. They have called for an investigation.
Protests
The son of Edita Burgos has been missing for over two months. He is the member of a left-wing farmer's organisation in the country's north and many there think he was kidnapped by soldiers wearing civilian dress.
His mother categorically rejects the new Act: "I am for prayer and I'm for negotiation," she says, calling for people to complain about the kidnappings and killings to their members of parliament and senators.
The influential Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines, or CBCP, had also campaigned for the government to rework the law one more time, but its efforts turned out to be in vain.