Gov’t hopes to end ‘disappearances’
To stop people simply disappearing into thin air, the government is now required to maintain an up-to-date registry of persons under detention and to regularly submit a list of detainees beginning in six months.
To stop people simply disappearing into thin air, the government is now required to maintain an up-to-date registry of persons under detention and to regularly submit a list of detainees beginning in six months.
Without fanfare, President Benigno Aquino III signed the reproductive health (RH) bill into law last Dec. 21. It was signed together with the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act. The highly contentious RH law provides “universal access” to reproductive health services and supplies such as contraceptives.
Not just the usual suspects. Sometimes an “order of battle” would include the name of a government official that intelligence reports would link to crimes like drugs and kidnapping.
Just before nightfall Friday, President Benigno Aquino signed Republic Act No. 10350, otherwise known as the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act, which criminalizes abduction by the state or by its agents.
It will soon be a law. Abduction by the state or by its agents is a crime. The Philippines becomes the first country in Asia to define enforced disappearance as a separate criminal offense.
