Anti-terror law must be restricted

WHENEVER a government decides to unduly expand its powers in the name of defending national security, the people must be extremely wary of the rulers' real intentions.

When the Patriot Act was passed a few years ago in the United States, in reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on that country, there was uproar among civil rights activists who were worried that the too broad definitions in the law of who constituted a national security risk could be misused against innocent critics of the government.

Consequently, many of the provisions in the act were aimed at foreigners in the United States, while Americans remained somewhat shielded by the protection afforded them by the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. But the US government was still given unprecedented rights to snoop on Americans, tapping their phones, reading their private e-mails, and even finding out which books they check out of their public libraries.

Most Americans have accepted this loss of some of their civil rights as the price they have to pay in the so-called war against terror. Yet American legislators made sure they put in sunset clauses into all provisions of the Patriot Act, so that every four years the act would expire and would have to be approved by Congress all over again.

In the Philippines, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, as usual ever so eager to please US President George W. Bush, is trying to rush through Congress a draconian anti-terror bill that would, among other things, allow the arrest of terrorism suspects without warrants issued by judges, and allow their unlimited detention without being charged or brought before a judge. In addition, terror suspects would have no access to journalists of any kind.

The real problem is that the bill as it stands uses overbroad and general language to define who poses a threat to the State. With its vague definitions, many fear that the law will be used against legitimate critics of the government, thus ushering in a new era of martial law. And Filipinos are no strangers to martial law, having experienced its horrors and injustices during the Ferdinand Marcos regime.

The opposition, militants and Muslim members of Congress have all vowed to put up a fight, and not allow the anti-terror bill as it now stands to be passed into law.

Representative Rolex Suplico of Iloilo province rightly warns that the bill "could lead to the annihilation of the legitimate opposition in the country." He adds that the country is already in a state of undeclared martial law, what with the banning of protest demonstrations without permits, the drafting of an order for the government to takeover key companies, and the issuance of the gag order, Executive Order 464, which bans government and military officials from testifying before Congress without the written permission of President Arroyo.

Not surprisingly, detained National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales, who claims not to know who was funding the lobbying contract he signed with the American firm Venable LLP, is scare-mongering from his hospital bed at the Philippine Heart Center. Giving phone interviews to journalists right and left, Gonzales is warning of the possibility of suicide bombers in Metro Manila, and even posits the scenario of terrorists shooting people at shopping malls with automatic weapons.

While not trying to belittle the danger that determined terrorists pose to innocent people all over the world, I do think that Gonzales has been watching one too many Hollywood thrillers in which terrorists try to blow up shopping malls.
Instead of trying to scare politicians and the general public into agreeing to give up many of their civil rights, Arroyo and her allies would do well to sit down with the opposition and work out an anti-terror bill that manages to allow the police to nab terrorists without throwing out the rights of millions of innocent people in the Philippines.

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