MANILA – President Arroyo on March 6 signed into law a landmark antiterrorism law that brings the country into line with its Southeast Asian neighbors battling Islamic militants. The United States immediately hailed its signing into law.
Critics, however, say the Human Security Act of 2007 (Republic Act 9372) has been too watered down over the years to be effective, while human-rights activists say it will lead to more human-rights abuses.
The President said the law is a “landmark” that “upgrades our preemptive capability to check the conspiracies of harm and mass murder, and contain the movement of arms and funds to sow mayhem."
She said it would boost the campaign
against Muslim militants such as the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah, both
allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
The United States and Australia welcomed
the signing of the law, saying it was a positive step forward in countering and
preventing terrorism.
The US and Australia have invested
heavily in military training and equipment for the Philippine Armed Forces.
The law is the first in the Philippines
specifically to address terrorist offenses, defining terrorism as a criminal
act that “causes widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the
populace."
It grants authorities access to bank
accounts they believe are being used to launder money for terrorist groups.
It also upholds the right of security
forces to detain suspects without charge for three days, a provision already on
the law books.
Congress passed the act a little over two
weeks ago in a special session called by Mrs. Arroyo.
The bill was introduced a decade ago,
four years before Islamic militants hijacked US aircraft which they used to
crash into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon.
But critics say the act has been diluted
too much to be effective.
The more stringent provisions of the bill
were removed by opposition legislators, who charged that they could be used to
harass government critics.
Human-rights activists and leftists
charge it could lead to abuses.
The Arroyo administration has been
criticized by the United Nations for a wave of killings of hundreds of leftist
dissidents, many of whom the military allege worked for front organizations of
the communist insurgency.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer in a statement released by the Australian Embassy in Manila said: “It
will strengthen the legal regime for investigating, prosecuting and bringing to
justice terrorists and their supporters who are captured in the
Philippines."
Security officials have said the law
falls short of what they wanted but that it is a good start that could lead
to stronger measures against terrorist
groups.
The Abu Sayyaf has carried out bombings
and mass kidnappings that have left hundreds dead.
Thousands of Filipino soldiers, with US
assistance and training, are hunting down the Abu Sayyaf leadership in Jolo.
The government is also battling a nearly
four-decade-old communist insurgency that is widely suspected of having links
with legal leftist groups.
Under the law, there will be no safe
haven for terror in our country. the President said, adding that ?law-abiding
Filipinos have nothing to fear in this law for it is a weapon that shall be
wielded against bombers and not protesters.
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