In it's current form, the Anti-Terror bill should not be approved

UPDATE: More updates below.

UPDATE: Before anything else basahin nyo muna ito: Can we trust the Arroyo administration with the Anti-Terror bill?

Let's talk about the anti-terror bill.

I am not against the Anti-Terrorism Bill per se. I just dont trust the administration that will implement it. And the bill in it's current form is unacceptable and needs to be rewritten.

Sabi ni DJB:

On a deeper level, the Anti-terrorism Law truly IS a reduction in the "democratic space" of all citizens that is ALSO a necessary response to the condition of WAR that currently obtains between a radical jihadist movement and the rest of the civilized world, (including almost all Muslims).

We were already hit hard by an al queda style attack back in dec. 30, 2000.

Maybe arroyo did not remember that attack, but i do.

That arroyo never passed an anti-terror bill into law during 2001-mid 2005 (when she has both the senate and house on her side) is a head scratcher.

The funny thing about all this is that Arroyo only found out about the urgent need of the Anti-terror bill after lumabas ang gloriagate legitimacy problem niya.

And her anti-Terror bill proposal in 2005 seems like it was written more with the anti-Arroyo opposition in mind back then as much as the real terrorists.

I believe the anti-terror legislation should be rewritten before they even think of passing it.

From Dean Agabin:

Dean Pacifico Agabin of the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law called the bill “constitutionally suspect” because it is “couched in vague and over broad terms, in violation of the substantive due process and the right to fair notice clause of the Constitution.”

Agabin said the bill was worse than the United States Patriot Act — enacted following the 9/11 attacks — because all criminal acts in the Revised Penal Code would fall under it, thus altering the Philippine criminal justice system.

“The proposed bill tries to cast as wide a net as possible and so it suffers not only from ambiguity but also from overbreadth,” he said, stressing that it would give way to a “fishing expedition” of the police.”

And I have no problems with the U.S. Patriot Act myself.

But if the contents of the Patriot Act were as bad as Arroyo's anti-terror bill, hindi ko susuportahan yan. And if Bush acted like Arroyo and used the Patriot Act powers on his political enemies, definitely dapat makulong si bush diyan.

Sabi pa ni Dean Jorge Bocobo:

I would prefer a number of improvements too John. For example, perhaps the implementation and supervision of the entire Anti Terror Law needs to be under a special Court, like FISA in the US, which does not crimp timely action, but provides a lot of oversight.

But it's getting late...I think we are about to be hit HARD!

If you're talking about the re-writing of the anti-terror bill, i don't think it's going to take that long.

hindi ba may anti-terror bill sila lacson, jinggoy, at magsaysay? I think most filipinos will find their terror bill more acceptable than arroyo's version. Because they've crafted this bill with the intention of only going after the real terrorists.

Yung anti-terror bill naman ni Arroyo lumps the political opposition and the anti-GMA groups/"destabilizers" along with the JI, Abu Sayyaf and NPA as one and the same.

Arroyo's terror bill in it's current form should be rejected.

pati sa US, even the senate rejected the renewal of the patriot act the first time it came up because of many senators (including some republicans) expressed concerns re the need to amend some of the provisions in the Patriot Act.

so i don't think we should be stampeded into passing arroyo's version.

So we don't have an anti-terror bill even after 12/30 and 9/11. Who's fault is that really?

at sa nakikita ko, this arroyo admin is not hampered by a lack of anti-terror bill anyway.

If arroyo is sincere and REALLY serious about this anti-terror bill, then she'd have no problems accepting the opposition's anti-terror bill, with enough built-in safeguards for everybody's peace of mind.

tama rin si MLQ3, dapat may "sunset clause" sa terror bill, to be renewed and re-authorized every 3 years.

pero kung ako ang tatanungin mo, i don't trust arroyo and I am reluctant to give arroyo tremendous powers knowing her admin's record of abusing it. she doesn't deserve these powers.

kung sa US ito, malamang hindi na na-renew ang patriot act, if democrats found out that bush was behaving like arroyo using the Patriot act against his political foes instead of the real terrorists. hindi lang yan, bush would have been impeached and removed from office by his own party by now if bush did an arroyo.

Tanong ni Amadeo:

Is one to suppose then that the delay in this passage is one or both of two things?

Because the country does not really believe the urgency and/or relevance of the proposed law to local conditions.

the delay for the bill is that arroyo never really took the WOT seriously, and saw it only as an opportunity to get the US support for her 2004 elections.

And news like these doesn't help.

Or the more politically expedient one, because this proposal reminds the local population, especially the vocal and US-averse critics, too much of the US and what it does; and thus even the administration would like very much to distance itself from anything US-sourced or –related.

i don't think so. hindi ba arroyo was gung ho about being seen as bush's ally back in 2003?

Sabi ni DJB in answering amadeo:

Neither or both amadeo. I think we're gonna get hit HARD, then the debates will go away or settle down to the grim reality.

Hit hard, but by WHOM?

nung Rizal Day bombing 12/30/2000, everybody assumed Erap's government masterminded it.

mali pala. si al ghozi at yung JI ang culprit.

so kung may bombang sumabog ulit, most people will understandably assume it's JI or Abu sayyaf.

Pero para sa akin, the possibility of JI, Abu sayyaf or NPA doing that is around 80%. The possibility of this administration "creating it's own 9/11" is around 20%.

More on the anti-terror bill from the PDI editorial, money quote:

We must bear in mind that the administration trying to panic Congress into passing the law is the same administration that proclaimed the February 2004 bombing of the Superferry 14 as an accident. Indeed, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said it was the work of “pranksters.” She and other officials admitted only that it was what everyone thought it was -- the country’s worst terrorist attack -- in October, after she had claimed victory in the May 2004 elections. Yet four weeks after the bombing, Redondo Cain Dellosa, alias Arnulfo Alvarado, had been captured by investigators and confessed he had planted the bomb where it would inflict the greatest number of casualties. The Abu Sayyaf claimed credit, but the government laughed it off -- until after the elections. Even then, the President claimed six suspects had been caught, though the two masterminds evaded apprehension.

Here's DJB's reaction..

Money quote from Malaya:

The trouble with the anti-terror bill is that it proposes to give expanded powers to security forces at a time when the Arroyo administration is running amuck in going after its enemies. Dissenters are being charged left and right for imagined offenses against national security. The acts which prosecutors consider as constituting rebellion, it should be remembered, fall under the "terrorist acts" listed in the proposed anti-terror bill.

That's the danger there.

REad this piece by DJB on how Arroyo administration misled the public about the Super Ferry attack: Why Gloria Denied Superferry 14 Was A Terrorist Attack

It was the deadliest terrorist attack on the Philippines since the December 30, 2000 Rizal Day Bombing of the LRT, (which a lot of people, especially in the Civil Society Media actually blamed on Erap and Ping.) But read how the Superferry 14 Bombing on Feb. 26, 2004, which took 116 lives, was blamed by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on "pranksters."...

Amazingly, the Philippine government did not even announce what it already knew about the Superferry 14 bombing until October 2004, after the elections had been safely GARCIED.

The President's managing of that deadliest terrorist attack on the Philippines by denying it's true terrorist nature reveals what a heartless political animal she truly is. Since the Palace was enmeshed in that entirely shameful controversy over FPJ's citizenship and the orchestrating of a series of public opinion polls in preparation for Garci's prestidigitation, and with the election campaign having just gotten underway, GMA was not to be bothered by a bunch of drowned and bombed Filipinos in the cruel seas near Bataan and Corregidor. Better to just attribute it to pranksters, even if there was a clear claim by the Abu Sayyaf, just a day after the bombing that they had done it!

Just as in the Angelo de la Cruz affair, and in every situation where honor and duty to country has mattered, Gloria has been a stunning and shameful failure.

Shameful indeed.