Duterte’s tyranny — in “anti-terrorism’s” disguise

#JunkTerrorBill

Now that the Joint Committee on Public Order and Safety and the House Committee on National Defense and Security has approved the Duterte regime’s Anti-Terror Bill, with a vote of 40–2, here are 10 reasons why the law is both ineffective and dangerous, and why all of us should be vigilant and fight back against the proposed draconian measure:

1. It contains a vague definition of terrorism that can be misinterpreted by state agents. We are not strangers to the fact that the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are fond of tagging people, mostly activists and critics of the regime, as “terrorists” for the mere reason that they ARE critical of the State. Using oxymoronic phrases such as “undermine public safety” or “destroy social, political, and economic foundations” in expounding what constitutes terrorism, in the eyes of the law, is reason enough to be alarmed — because it gives a leeway for a repressive government such as Duterte’s to twist it to their favor. Surely, in the eyes of this regime, “terrorism” would include criticisms and decisive protest actions held against his anti-people rule. Even assemblies such as protest demonstrations, or even gatherings similar with People Power of 1986 and 2001, would be mistakenly considered as “acts of terrorism” and banned.
2. The bill, when passed into law, would infringe on people’s basic rights and civil liberties. The provision that penalizes recruitment or membership to alleged terrorist organizations certainly clamps down on our right to join or form an organization because the government has not set any definite parameters on what organizations can be tagged as “terrorist,” and as such that vacuum will give them free pass to terror-tagging people’s organization. The inciting to terrorism provision is another perilous aspect of this law: if law enforcement agencies think that a poem, song, or video inspires people to do actions that they consider to be “terrorist” for the flimsiest of reasons, they can easily track down and extirpate those, even if the song or poem is only a militant expression of protestation. Any form of speech, in social media or on-ground, that the State deems to be inspiring or aiding terrorism would also be banned — even if that speech merely describes the State for what it really is, or criticizing it for an erroneous action.
3. Academic freedom will be the first casualty of this law. Imagine this: you’re reading Marx’s philosophical manuscripts, or Lenin’s State and Revolution, or Victor Hugo’s Lés Miserables, and all of a sudden you’re now a subject of interrogation because you read up an unorthodox book. Since the Duterte regime perceives other political ideologies and actions such as communism or revolution as synonymous with “terrorism,” even the education of mostly liberal arts or social science students would be affected. Left-leaning authors, revolutionary histories, and even novels that exemplify rebellion against unjust powers — be it Harry Potter, Rick Riordan’s novels, or Hunger Games — can be banned from the public’s consumption. Teachers and students who are imbibing radical ideas, progressive principles, or militant analysis of society can also be the subject of a warrantless arrest or persecution.
4. Satire, in particular, would be an uneventful object of the law’s fangs. Because of satire’s nature of making caricatures out of public personalities or government officials as a means of dissent, any satirical zinger, cartoon, or even a meme whose intention, the regime claims, is to stoke public ire against an official and goad them into committing terrorist acts can now be penalized.
5. Writers and journalists would also be placed at the mercy of this proposed law. Since Duterte’s election in 2016, several journalists were publicly smeared by Malacañang-backed troll farms and Duterte’s fanatics as covert agents of the New People’s Army — which the AFP, PNP, and even the United States has declared as a terrorist organization — by way of photos taken out of context, such as journalists having training on emergency response in the mountains or their interviews with top rebel leaders as part of the job. On a hilarious note, the National Task Force to End the Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) even went to the extent of saying that ABS-CBN’s shutdown is manipulated by “communist-terrorists” to discredit the Duterte regime. Such propositions and preposterous statements, under this law’s radar, would now be taken as gospel truths merely because state agents said so. For sure, reports and articles that would be written once the law takes effect would be severely censored lest one risks being jailed for an unfounded accusation, effectively enervating the free press and writers’ artistic freedom.
6. The flimsy but systematic campaign of the military and police to terror-tag and red-tag progressives, leftists, journalists, students, and even academics, as well as the working-class and farmers asserting their socioeconomic crisis, makes this law dangerous to EVERYONE who does not take part in Duterte’s rule. The question of “who defines terrorism?” becomes all the more relevant in this context, since the arbitrary tagging of anyone as a terrorist, thereby subjecting that person to unjust treatment upon arrest and trial (assuming that the person will still take trial and not a bullet), will be possible if this law grants extreme powers to the perpetators of widespread terror-taging and red-tagging — the AFP, PNP, and Duterte himself.
7. The penalties and “warranted actions” in this law further cripple our civil rights and jeopardize our already-crumbling democratic spaces. Upon a written court order from the Court of Appeals, the bill allows the military and the police to secretly wiretap and intercept individuals whom it accuses of engaging in terrorist acts. If you’re an activist sending out messages of solidarity to the struggling people through Messenger, or a journalist e-mailing to an editor a story about a certain “terrorist organization’s” activities, or a writer posting a script of a revolutionary inspired by Bonifacio or EDSA People Power, chances are the state’s cybercrime and intelligence agencies would be spying on you more often — without you even knowing it. In effect, this makes the country a goddamned police state where th State knows everything. On an unfortunate note, that actually takes place already — with the National Bureau of Investigation’s current online tokhang against the President’s critics. If you’ve read George Orwell’s 1984, there is only one remarkable quotation that fits this scenario: Big Brother is watching.
8. This bill permits the police and military to arbitrarily detain any “suspect” within a safe house or an undisclosed location between three days to two months, with a ten-day extension permissible under its provisions. Remember Ferdinamd Marcos’ torture chambers during Martial Law? Under Marcos’ fascist rule, suspected communists or subversives are held by the Philippine Constabulary inside these “safe houses” with a maximum time frame of three days. This bill does not even come close to that, and even exceed the treacherous timeline of Marcos’ safe houses. Just imagine how many acts of torture can be done within that long period of time cloaked as acts of interrogation. Even though this violates a person’s right against unjust detention, the proposed law would actually make it legal to hold people against their will inside secret hide-outs, incommunicado, since the State considers them a “threat to national security.”
9. It criminalizes dissent, criticism, and even conflicting political ideologies. Since Fidel V. Ramos’ regime repealed Republic Act 1700, otherwise known as the Anti-Subversion Law, being a communist or a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines is not a crime. The 1987 Constitution’s Bill of Rights, under Section 4, explicitly states that no law shall be passed abridging the free press, free speech, and the right to assembly — and even the right to organize. This bill, if passed into law, would reverse all of that — and outlaw even a miniscule expression of resistance against state abuse.
10. This law is none other than a distraction, a smokescreen to conceal Duterte’s construction of his dictatorship. What the people needs at this time are substantial aid, jobs, and medical solutions to a pandemic that has literally crippled our socioeconomic lives, but it’s clear as day that the government’s misguided priorities push them to prioritize fascist measures such as this bill. It’s a deliberate act of legitimizing fascism, of making acts that violate and discard our constitutional rights, liberties, and freedoms as legal — under a slimy excuse — and an addition to an already hefty arsenal of laws and policy actions by Duterte which strives to muzzle opposition: Oplan Kapanatagan and Executive Order 70, Memorandum Order 32, Oplan Sauron, the railroaded passage of Mandatory ROTC’s reinstatement, the formation of NTF-ELCAC, and the formulation of trumped-up charges to imprison activists and critics (remember Sen. De Lima, aging NDFP peace consultants, and other political prisoners?). Through equally deliberate acts of “othering” critical or conflicting political ideologies, movements, or citizens, this law achieves the regime’s sole purposes: silence its critics, diminish democratic spaces for dissent, and close down avenues of free expression, so no one will dare question or chide their fiendish actions. Terrorism, also, is and will not be concretely weakened even if this law takes effect, since the country’s history with Gloria Arroyo’s Human Security Act of 2007 shows that mere legislation and scorched earth tactics purportedly aimed at wiping out terrorism, without any drive to solve the root causes of extremist ferment in this country, would only lead to further radicalization of the people. The Human Security Act did not prevent the 2015 Mamasapano carnage from happening, nor did it deter Maute terrorists from blowing Marawi City into smitheerens. As in the communist insurgency, legislation that further aggravate the conflict with false charges, harsh penalties, and coercive measures would merely serve to exacerbate the problem. That makes this law not only dangerous, but also ineffectual and counterproductivr. Like other laws and orders crafted to clamp down on the people’s rights and liberties, this will only cater to the interests of the local ruling class and the bourgeoisie, whose very existence is consequential of fascism’s rise and the crushing of legitimate opposition and dissent. This is no different from what the national security law that the totalitarian Chinese Communist Party pushed to be legislated in Hong Kong . (The mere fact that Duterte cozies up and subserviently follows China doesn’t make things look any safer.)

Duterte’s anti-terror bill is definitely not the answer; it is the question, and our answer should be a reverberating no. This is none other than legalized fascism, legislated dictatorship, and a legal assault against democracy — a martial rule in “anti-terrorism’s” sordid diguise. With this kind of a law, Duterte does not even need to declare martial law— because this IS worst than martial law.

Truth be told, this law is also pretty much ironic . How could a President whose own regime has been exercising the worst forms of terrorism — murdering people in the thousands, hounding indigenous peoples’ communities, bombing and strafing entire cities and villages, arresting and persecuting critics, and terrorizing an entire population — pose himself to be the foremost advocate of combatting terrorism? Tokhang terrorized urban communities. Oplan Kapanatagan terrorized communities. Debold Sinas’ Oplan Sauron terrorized Negros and Central Visayas. And yet the madman who perpetrated these terrorist operations is not placed behind bars.

Beyond that paradox, the people should never allow a law such as this that would clearly trample upon and trivialize our human rights and civil liberties to even secure a place in the deliberations of the House of Representatives. The only proper response to the Duterte-backed anti-terror bill would be our unyielding, unrelenting, and unflappable resistance.