Anti-Terrorism Act could have prevented Marawi siege, says Lacson

Soldiers patrol the streets near the heavily damaged Bato Ali Mosque in Marawi City after the military defeated Islamic State-linked groups that laid siege to the Lanao del Sur capital in 2017. (Photo by RICHEL V. UMEL / Inquirer Mindanao)

MANILA, Philippines — The Marawi siege of 2017 could have been prevented had the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 been in effect at that time, Senator Panfilo Lacson has said.

During an online forum of the League of Provinces of the Philippines on Thursday, Lacson, who sponsored the controversial bill in the Senate, said the Philippines cannot afford to have another crisis similar to the Marawi battle, a five-month campaign to recapture the bombed out city from Islamic State-linked gunmen.

Lacson pointed out that the anti-terror bill includes provisions against “inchoate offenses.”

An inchoate offense is a “preparatory act punishable even if the desired result of such act has not occurred yet, thus making it an independent crime itself.”

Thus, under Section 6 of the Anti-Terrorism Bill, planning, training, preparing and facilitating the commission of terrorism, which are acts performed towards the accomplishment of terrorism, are penalized.

“Had this measure been in effect earlier instead of the 2007 Human Security Act (HSA), the Marawi Siege could have been prevented. For one, a new feature under this bill is to make punishable inchoate offenses, something not present under the present Human Security Act of 2007,” Lacson said.

Lacson also said that while there is Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012, the country still has no mechanism to prevent the financing of terrorist activities.

“The Anti-Terrorism Bill has a mechanism to trigger a freeze order by the Anti-Money Laundering Council upon the request of the Anti-Terrorism Council,” Lacson said.

Lacson also said that certain provisions in the Anti-Terrorism Bill will allow authorities to act on intelligence reports on potential terrorist activity.

“What happened in Marawi was not lack of intelligence; they had enough intelligence but they could not act because the HSA of 2007 is toothless and rendered a dead-letter law” he said.

“The loss of hundreds of lives and the massive destruction of properties could have been prevented in Marawi City with an Anti-Terrorism Law stronger and more effective than the toothless dead-letter law like the Human Security Act of 2007,” he added.

The Marawi siege left thousands of civilians, government soldiers and Islamist fighters dead.

In the same forum, several governors also expressed support for the proposed legislation now awaiting the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte to become a law.

LPP president and Marinduque Gov. Presbitero Velasco Jr. said that “a big majority of governors fully supported the eventual, I believe, passage of the bill into law.”

Duterte could either sign the bill into law or veto it. He could also let the measure lapse into law after 30 days of receipt without acting on it.

Malacañang has earlier said that Duterte “is inclined” to sign the proposed legislation.