They have gone to media to sound an alarm of warning
against the passage of the proposed and certified bill by the President - Anti-Terror
Bill as this they say may lead to more coronavirus
infections as it will “further clog” the country’s prisons which are already at full capacity.
Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares made the remarks after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte certified the
said bill as urgent of the proposed amendments in the several provisions Human
Security Act of 2007.
He aid if made into law it “will worsen the COVID
crisis as it would cow dissenters,” as well as the media and all those who
criticize the government.
Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares (photo credit to owner) |
He also accuses administration
allies in Congress for “railroading” of the measure “that has no relation
whatsoever to people’s health and COVID and grants Malacanang more power to
arrest critics.”
“We
call on the House of Representatives to assert its independence as a co-equal
branch and disapprove the anti-terror bill. We call on the Senate to return its
approved anti terror bills to committee hearings and invite critics of the bill
to the hearings to point our to the Senators the absurdity and unconstitutionality
of their bill,” he said.
Colmenares, a losing senatorial candidate in the
last mid term elections further adds that
ordinary forms of dissent such as those committed by the group Anonymous
“is now considered a terrorist act and penalized with life imprisonment.”
“People power, EDSA 1 and EDSA 2 among others are
considered terrorist acts under the new Anti-Terror law,” Colmenares stressed.
Colmenares is also
concern in the provision in the proposed bill which will grant the President’s
Anti-Terrorism Council “judicial power to authorize the arrest of any person on
the mere suspicion of committing terrorism.”
“Considering
the track record of President Duterte in ordering the arrest of dissenters and
the opposition on charges of sedition or holding rallies, the Anti-Terror bill
if it becomes a law, could lead to arrest of critics, this time on the
non-bailable offense of terrorism penalized with life imprisonment,” he said.
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