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Anti-Terrorism
Bill: Another Attack on Civil Rights
GMA: Resurrection of Marcos —PCPR
A MILITANT Church-based
group said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's State of the Nation
Address, where she endorsed the Anti-Terrorism Bill, proved that
she is really a "war-freak".
"Without
declaring martial law, her endorsement of the Anti-Terrorism Bill
clearly spells the resurrection of repressive policies of the Marcos
dictatorship," Rev. Fr. Allan Arcebuche, OFM, Spokesperson
of the Promotion of Church People's Response (PCPR) said.
Fr. Arcebuche
said Macapagal is the resurrection of the much-hated dictator Ferdinand
Marcos who imposed Martial Law in the name of "peace and order".
He exposed the
Anti-Terrorism Bill as another attack on civil rights for it proposes
to authorize the wholesale warrantless arrests and searches based
on "verified information"or when the person to be arrested
is suspected of engaging in heinous crimes or to arrest persons
in a checkpoint on mere suspicion that the passengers of vehicles
are members of the Abu Sayyaf.
"We will
not allow the resurrection of Marcos to cause the warrantless arrests,
torture and summary execution of thousands of Filipinos again just
because of Macapagal's war-footing," Fr. Arcebuche stressed.
He said that
in the guise of fighting crime and terrorism, Macapagal is hell-bent
on passing the Anti-Terrorism Bill and allowing long-term US troops
deployment. The Terror Bill extends the scope of warrantless arrests
and searches on persons acting suspiciously and expands warrantless
arrests against persons merely suspected of committing the political
crimes of rebellion or sedition.
Without Martial
Law declaration, according to Fr. Arcebuche, the bill allows:
- the filing
of charges of common crimes even with respect to offenses of a
political nature
- the setting
up of checkpoints and the conduct of warrantless searches
- the lengthening
the legally allowable periods of detention without charges during
the crucial period of custodial investigation or the so-called
tactical interrogation
- legitimizing
the setting up and conduct of mobile, random and stationary checkpoints
by the police and military
- the conduct
of indiscriminate and wholesale saturation drives or "zonings"
especially in urban poor communities purportedly to ferret out
criminals
"As it
was in the Marcos dictatorship, we know that the terror bill will
be used against leaders and members of militant people's organizations
that expose the corrupt, anti-poor and militarist policies of the
Macapagal administration," Fr. Arcebuche concluded.
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