The bill does intend to include Filipinos and others outside the Philippines in the bill. WELL, THAT LAW WON’T APPLY TO ME HERE IN THE UNITED STATES! While the bill does state that “advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights” will be protected, these acts are still subject to the problematic caveat that they’re not done with the intent to cause fear, intimidate the government, or destabilize the economy or undermine public safety, which can be easily interpreted against the suspect. Tackling national security can and must be done while respecting our guaranteed rights and freedoms!īUT THE GOVERNMENT SAYS OUR CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS WILL BE PROTECTED IN THE BILL? The current UN expert on defending human rights while countering terrorism says that “Security and Human Rights are not at odds with each other, in fact, they are bound together”. This bill violates our rights to due process, trial, or privacy, and threatens to discourage the practice of our freedoms of speech, expression, and assembly. Surveillance of a suspect’s personal information, bank records, or private communications can be conducted without their knowledge for up to 90 days! Not at the risk of our civil, political, democratic or human rights! Provisions in the bill will allow the creation of a presidentially appointed Anti-Terrorism Council, who will have the authority to designate terrorism suspects and empower police and military to conduct warrantless arrests and detain suspects for up to 24 days (8x longer than current law allows) without any formal charges or before they’re brought to a judicial authority. Does that mean speaking at a rally or giving a presentation to a class or holding a sign or posting a meme or video? Who knows, because under this new bill, the government is given the discretion to interpret “terrorism” on their own.īUT TERRORISM IS REAL, SHOULDN’T WE STILL BE CONCERNED ABOUT NATIONAL SECURITY? You might also commit terrorism “by means of speeches, proclamations, writings, emblems, banners or other representations of the same”. By this definition, worker’s strikes/pickets or public protest actions could be interpreted as “terrorism”. Under the bill, you can be suspected of terrorism if you commit, to any degree-or intend to commit-acts that cause or create “intimidation of the public, promotion of messages of fear, intimidation of the government, destruction or destabilization of the economy, politics, and society, to create public emergency and undermine public safety”. BUT I’M NOT A TERRORIST, WHY SHOULD I BE WORRIED?
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