P-Noy asks lawmakers to strengthen anti-terror law

MANILA, Philippines - The Aquino administration has asked legislators to strengthen an anti-terror law by easing safeguards against abuse that have tied the hands of law enforcers who go after terrorists. 

President Aquino said Tuesday the administration had included in the 13 priority bills that they want Congress to fast-track, the amendment to Republic Act 9372 or the Human Security Act of 2007, which they have submitted to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).

One prohibitive provision they are not comfortable with is the P500,000 fine for each day law enforcers wrongfully detained a terror suspect who was eventually acquitted by the courts.

“A law enforcement entity would be frightened to arrest anybody despite strong intelligence, but who would like to pay a fine of half a million daily,” Aquino said.

Malacañang is seeking an amendment that would to make P500,000 the ceiling on the overall fine for the entire duration of the suspect’s wrongful detention, which could be a more reasonable amount.

Former President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo signed the Human Security Act in 2007 to strengthen the Philippines’ battle against al-Qaeda-linked militants.

But concern over possible rights violations prompted lawmakers to include strong safeguards against abuses.

Another objectionable provision of the anti-terror law is the notification of the person who is the subject of surveillance operations, which only makes it more difficult for the state to go after terrorists because the suspects are informed before they could be arrested.

“How could you arrest (suspects) if you would warn the suspect that he is being monitored,” Aquino said.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, agreed with Aquino’s proposed amendments, noting that this was not the version he presented when they were deliberating the measure during the time of former President Arroyo.

“In the case of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, I agree with the proposal of the President to amend it because I do not remember that I put in my original version that the person to be surveilled has to be notified first,” he told Palace reporters.

“And second, in the case of the P500,000 penalty per day that was not in my version, it was insisted by some members of the Senate at the time and that was pushed through in the bicameral conference committee,” he recalled.

The penalty more or less impedes the effective use of the measure to thwart terrorism in the country, said Enrile, a former defense secretary.

The Supreme Court had upheld

in October 2010, the constitutionality of the Human Security Act of 2007, declaring that it does not violate the 1987 Constitution.

Jose Manuel Diokno, dean of the De La Salle University College of Law, said that this is a dangerous law, which authorizes preventive detention, expands the power of warrantless arrest, and allows for unchecked invasion of privacy, liberty and other basic rights.

Persons merely suspected of engaging in terrorism may be arrested without warrant and detained without charges, critics added.

When former President Arroyo signed it in July 2007, civic groups said the law would be used to impose a crackdown against political dissenters and will lead to human rights abuses.

The SC said the petitioners have no legal standing to question the Human Security Act because none of them have been charged under the said law.

The SC also said the fears that the enforcement of the law will lead to abuse were merely imagined. The SC then said that the petitioners failed to present an actual incident that would warrant judicial intervention.

The United States and Australia welcomed the law when it took effect in July 2007. US and Australian security officials have expressed fears that suspected terror training camps in the southern Philippines could produce militants able to carry out attacks anywhere in the world.

Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary-general Renato Reyes said that the President’s proposed amendments to the Human Security Act would only make the anti-terror law worse than it already is.

“The proposed amendments seek to give this draconian law even more teeth. The amendments seek to remove deterrents for human-rights violations and instead give law enforcers more leeway to conduct illegal arrests and detention. This is a very dangerous proposition. Aquino seems oblivious to the continuing cases of illegal arrests, torture and other abuses that are being carried out by law enforcement units,” said Reyes. Delon Porcalla, Rhodina Villanueva, AP