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Filipinos protest new terror law { February 2007 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/06/ap3487866.htmlhttp://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/03/06/ap3487866.html
Associated Press
Philippine Leader Signs Anti-Terror Law
By JIM GOMEZ 03.06.07, 5:01 AM ET
President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on Tuesday signed into law a package of anti-terror measures that has drawn protests as a threat to civil liberties.
Carol Araullo, head of the left-wing group Bayan, said the Human Security Act was motivated by the government's desire to "score brownie points with the U.S. government." She noted that Canada recently scrapped similar laws.
Washington has long prodded the Philippines to strengthen its anti-terrorism laws, seeing the country as a key target and breeding ground of militants in Southeast Asia's Muslim heartland.
The U.S. Embassy in Manila welcomed the law as a "positive step forward in countering and preventing terrorism ... while ensuring protection of civil liberties and human rights."
The legislation allows police to detain suspected terrorists without charge and includes rebellion among those crimes considered to constitute terrorism.
It allows court-authorized surveillance of terror suspects, including through wiretaps and tracking devices, and allows authorities to freeze suspects' personal assets.
Arroyo said law-abiding Filipinos have "nothing to fear" from the legislation "for it shall be wielded against bombers and not protesters."
The legislation "upgrades our pre-emptive capability to check the conspiracies of harm and mass murder, and contain the movement of arms and funds to sow mayhem," Arroyo said.
Indonesian militants have taken refuge in the southern region of Mindanao, running bomb-making and training camps and plotting attacks with the separatist Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
Similar bills were introduced as early as a decade ago but were repeatedly shot down. Filipinos are sensitive about threats to civil liberties they won back in 1986 after the ouster of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
Left-wing groups took to the streets to denounce the new law as unconstitutional and said they would ask the Supreme Court to strike it down. Opposition lawmakers amended much of the original bill but still say the definition of terrorism is too broad and could cover legitimate dissent.
Police had sought a month of detention without charges for suspected terrorists, but the law grants only three days. They also sought the death penalty for convicted terrorists, but capital punishment was abolished in the Philippines last June.
The maximum punishment under the law is 40 years in prison.
Any person wrongfully detained by authorities could collect $10,350 in damages for each day of detention.
Journalists, lawyers and doctors can not be compelled to disclose details about militants.
The law also bans extraordinary rendition, the secretive CIA practice of apprehending foreign terror suspects and sending them to third countries - including those that practice torture - for interrogation without court approval.
Last month, Canada's Supreme Court struck down a law allowing the government to detain foreign terror suspects indefinitely while the courts review their deportation orders.
A few days later, the Canadian parliament voted to end two anti-terror measures adopted in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, one that allowed for preventive arrests and another that permitted forced testimony.
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed
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