Human Rights Defender Act, bollocks!

RECENT events prompted the usual suspects to revive HB 10576 or the so-called Human Defenders Act which, at this very moment, is gathering dust at the committee level in Congress.

A certain Alex Pacalda, formerly of LFS and GABRIELA Youth and currently an NPA member of the Platoon Sol, Sub-Regional Military Area (SRMA) 4B, Southern Tagalog Regional Party Committee (STRPC), was found by the court GUILTY beyond reasonable doubt for the crimes of violation of Republic Act (RA) 9516 (Illegal Possession of Ingredients for Explosives) with an imposed penalty of Reclusion Perpetua, and also for violation of RA 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act).

The propaganda lines of the CPP/NPA/NDF is that Alex Pacalda is just an activist, a human rights defender, that is until damming photographs of her in full NPA regalia complete with high-powered firearms training as a CPP/NPA combatant came out. The evidence was too much to dispute.

At first glance HB 10576 looks idealistic/very noble. But looks can be deceiving. Taking a second look, one notices that the very proponents of this bill are also the ones who are vehemently opposed to the passage of RA 11479 or The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The usual suspects are the front organizations of the CPP/NPA/NDF taking advantage of the party-list system in Congress, aptly called KABAG – acronym for Kabataan, Anakpawis, Bayan Muna, Alliance of Concerned Teachers, and Gabriella.

The principal authors of HB 10576 are Albay 1st Ddstrict representative Edsel Lagman whose ties with the CPP/NPA/NDFP need no introduction, and Quezon City 6th District representative Kit Belmonte who’s just a “useful idiot” trying to be cute, of course ably supported by KABAG.

The ulterior motive for this HB 10576 is quite obvious. RA 11479 or The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 plus the creation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) are the “one-two” punch of the government in eliminating the threats of terrorism and ending the decades-long insurgency problem.

Obviously, the Anti-Terrorism Law and the NTF-ELCAC are very effective otherwise these folks won’t come up with this Human Rights Defenders Protection Act because if it becomes law it will also effectively render the Anti-Terrorism Law inutile. So tell me who wants to have an inutile Anti-Terrorism Law except the terrorists and their supporters?

Human rights defender bill ‘flawed, unconstitutional’

The Human Rights Defenders bill being pushed anew by the Makabayan bloc in Congress is unnecessary, unconstitutional and will only serve and protect the interest of terrorist organizations such as the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front (CPP/NPA/NDF).

The proposed legislation seeks to institutionalize in the government certain groups that are known to be fronts of CPP/NPA/NDF, such as Karapatan Alliance for the Advancement of People’s Rights (Karapatan) and the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL), which shall become mandatory members of the so-called “Human Rights Defenders Protection Committee” that will be created once the law is enacted.

Provisions of the bill “contradicts existing laws” like the Republic Act 9160 or the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2001 (AMLA), RA 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA) and RA 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012. (PNA 11/10/21)

The so-called rights in it are already enshrined in our Constitution; it has only one purpose and that is to render the Anti-Terrorism Law ineffective and to give legitimacy to other front organizations of the CPP/NPA/NDF.

As if that’s not enough, Makabayan Bloc, as usual in support of the beleaguered CPP/NPA/NDF, filed recently House Resolution 756 calling for the lifting of the government’s terrorist tag on the CPP/NPA/NDF ostensibly to pave the way to resume “peace talks” that we all know is just a euphemism for them to operate/regroup while the AFP/PNP is on stand down.

Of course, we’re all aware that this is another of the so-called Makabayan Bloc’s desperate attempts to resuscitate an already dying obsolete and irrelevant insurgency.

Isn’t that rather clever – using government resources to undermine the government?/PN