HOW the controversial anti-terrorism law is used to evoke terror among citizens is alarming as well as it is condemnable. Six persons in the Cordillera region were recently designated as “terrorists” by the government, among them staunch activists who consistently advocated for human rights and the rights of indigenous people.
On June 7, 2023 the Anti-Terrorism Council, created by virtue of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, approved its Resolution No. 41 designating Sarah Abellon-Alikes, Jennifer Awingan, Windel Bolinget, Stephen Tauli, Jovencio Tangbawan and May Vargas-Casilao as “terrorists”. Upon its publication on July 10, 2023, the resolution elicited indignation of the individuals concerned and the entire community of human rights defenders in the country and other places.
One’s official designation as a “terrorist” makes one prone to the harsh penalties of the Anti-Terrorism Act. The act’s provisions detrimental to human rights face wide opposition by broad sectors of the citizenry. A record 37 petitions were then submitted to the Supreme Court to scrap the “terror law”. Eventually, the Court struck out some of the most odious provisions but the unjust nature of the law remained intact.
The ATC’s resolution is an embodiment of the anxieties and fears earlier voiced out by human rights defenders about the terror law.
The arbitrary way the terrorist designation is effected manifests the relentless witch-hunt of the government armed forces against legitimate dissent. It seems evident that their failure to win cases in court against activists, for instance Windel Bolinget, after charging him with one trumped-up offense after another, prompted them to take the easy way provided by the draconian terror law but at the expense of justice and human rights.
It is quite perplexing that this government is hard bent on the militarist solution to dissent and rebellion despite the unending call to solve the roots of the conflict which are poverty and injustice. It refuses to heed the lesson made obvious by the failure of the many years of counter-insurgency war.
Even without the application of the Anti-Terrorism Act, human rights defenders here in Panay have been victims of state repression in varied forms, from red-tagging and intimidation to arrests to outright killings. We recall the arrest of Elmer Forro of Bayan-Panay on trumped-up charges. Then the gruesome killings that victimized peasant leader John Farochilen, Bayan Muna’s Jory Porquia and the nine Tumandok indigenous leaders in the year 2020.
The violations were preluded by red-tagging and vilification from different sources within the state’s military and police machinery, notably by the NTF-ELCAC. Although officially sanctioned, the red-tagging activities were random and contentious.
A terrorist designation, such as that contained in the Anti-Terrorism Council’s Resolution No. 41, on the other hand, is backed by law and has a specific and definite target, a legalized and fortified red-tagging, a virtual bulldozer that can mow down its opponent at will.
It is high time to renew the call to repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act. It is proving to be a threat to the citizenry instead of being a protection against actual terrorism. The anti-terrorism council it created should not be allowed to continue wreaking terror among human rights defenders and the citizenry.
As always, it is a unified and widespread people’s outcry that could give weight to our legitimate demands for justice, genuine peace and the enjoyment of our freedoms and liberties as individuals and as a people. – KARAPATAN-PANAY panaykarapatan@gmail.com
