Congress urged to enact anti-terror bill

The government called on Congress to immediately enact an anti-terrorism bill which would also give protection to human rights.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez led representatives from law enforcement agencies in pointing out the global trend in terrorism necessitates the need for a law to address the ever-changing situation.

"I believe that with the advance of technology now and the widespread terrorist activities nationwide, it is needed," Gonzalez told the Senate.

"To the forces transforming military doctrine in the past, we must add the transforming power of terrorism in asymmetric warfare," he said.

Gonzalez also emphasized the need for the protection of human rights in enacting any anti-terrorism bill.

He said certain provisions of the bill should expressly cover the protection of human rights in the fight against terrorism.

"I believe that the terrorism bill is necessary although there were some reservations on certain provisions which would probably curtail, to some degree, human rights," Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez suggested to the Senate panel composed of Senators Alfredo Lim and Juan Ponce Enrile that the government should take into consideration concerns over possible human rights violation in the enactment of the new anti-terror law.

He also claimed "the democratization of technology" made some fanatic individuals and "conspiratorial groups" play a powerful role in world politics to send their message across.

Among their goals, according to Gonzalez, is to inflict mass destruction which was "once upon a time reserved only for governments and their respective armed forces."

In the same Senate hearing, Ambassador Florencio Fianza, special envoy on Transnational Crime, said that after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, an "emerging security paradigm" already shifted from the traditional or conventional to "asymmetric" warfare.

"The enemy was not the state. The immediate aim was not to acquire territory but to alter the ideological balance of power. Violence is not carried out directly by agents of the state, and the target is not opposing armies but civilians," Fianza said.

Fianza said terrorism still exists in the Philippines, citing the December 2000 bomb attacks in Metro Manila and the attacks in Makati, General Santos and Davao cities last Valentine’s Day.

"(These attacks) have not only taken the lives of innocent civilians, but have also created a nagging climate of fear and provided a glimpse of how terrorism can have debilitating effects in the normal operation of the government and the economy," Fianza told the Senate.

Fianza claimed the Philippines remains the only country in the Southeast Asian region which has not passed an anti-terrorism law.