WHO’S afraid of Republic Act (RA 11479) otherwise known as the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020?
Not the majority of the law-abiding natives of these islands. They welcome the passage of this law.
But there are a handful of people who would and did everything humanely possible to stop the passage of RA 11479. And we start with the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines. Two senators opposed this law and in fact voted against it – senators Rissa Hontiveros and defeated wannabe vice president Kiko Pangilinan.
In the House of Representatives where this law originated, a block of party-list representatives also vehemently opposed this law and they are aptly called KABAG – an acronym for Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Gabriella.
When RA 11479 was finally signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte and hurdled all the petitions against it in the Supreme Court, these folks at KABAG had the audacity to file what they call “Human Defenders Act” which when passed will render RA11479 or The Anti-Terrorism Act effectively useless. Fortunately for us, this so-called “Human Defenders Act” is still languishing in the committee level in Congress.
But what really is this RA 11479 that has these people squirming in their red knickers?
It is a counter-terrorism law intended to prevent, prohibit and penalize terrorism in the Philippines. The law was passed by the 18th Congress and signed by President Duterte on July 3, 2020, effectively replacing the Human Security Act of 2007 on July 18, 2020.
The Act defines terrorism as:
* Engaging in acts intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person or endangers a person’s life;
* Engaging in acts intended to cause extensive damage or destruction to a government or public facility, public place, or private property;
* Engaging in acts intended to cause extensive interference with, damage, or destruction to critical infrastructure;
* Developing, manufacturing, possessing, acquiring, transporting, supplying, or using weapons; and
* Releasing dangerous substances or causing fire, floods or explosions when the purpose is to intimidate the general public, create an atmosphere to spread a message of fear, provoke or influence by intimidation the government or any international organization, seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental political, economic, or social structures in the country, or create a public emergency or seriously undermine public safety[1]
The definition states that “advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights” shall not be considered as terrorist acts only if they “are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person’s life, or to create a serious risk to public safety.”
You can see from the definition above that if you are a law-abiding citizen of this republic you will not fear, in fact welcome, this law. But if your purpose is to overthrow the legitimate government — i.e. the CPP/NPA/NDFP and their front organizations including their party-lists in Congress — then definitely you would be afraid and oppose RA 11479.
I just hope that those “useful idiots” who cannot accept the results of a democratic practice called elections are aware of the existence of RA 11479.
MORE ON WORK SAFETY
And we segue to something totally not political. Just recently 25 personnel, particularly substation tenders of Iloilo City’s distribution utility, MORE Power, underwent training on basic safety and work practices. According to MORE Power Network Operations deputy head Engr. Bailey Del Castillo, MORE Power president Roel Castro acknowledged the important role of substation tenders hence, this training was conducted.
Del Castillo said the training aims to equip their substations tenders, manning the facilities 24/7, with fresh and proper knowledge about their specific jobs. He noted that the substations are very critical equipment in the distribution network and many safety measures must be put in place.
A power substation is a key part of the power distribution system in which the voltage is transformed from high to low or low to high for transmission, distribution, transformation, and switching. It also protects the consumers from sudden drops or surges of electricity.
The training, which ran for six days, included classroom lecture/training on substation basic safety and work practices and power substation maintenance, parts and functions identification and electrical test results interpretation, and field lecture or actual substation walkthrough.
Take note that substation tenders who were absorbed from the defunct Panay Electric Company or PECO almost had no training of this sort; we can just imagine what would happen if a major accident happened during PECO’s watch. Rest assured that after training these former PECO people are now very much up to the task./PN
