Karapatan: Lawmen abused old anti-terrorism bill

MANILA, Philippines — Human rights group Karapatan on Saturday dismissed the government’s repeated assurances that the proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 would not be abused because law enforcers could not even implement the old Human Security Act of 2007 without abuses.

“The rabid proponents of the Anti-Terrorism Act propagate the lie that the proposed measure will not be abused while, in the same breath, eschewing the human rights safeguards in the already draconian Human Security Act,” Karapatan secretary general Cristina Palabay said.

“Even without the Anti-Terrorism Act and even with the supposed human rights safeguards in the current Human Security Act, the use of various forms of torture, Red-tagging and other human rights violations such as the illegal arrests, abductions, enforced disappearances, and killings of activists and dissenters have continued with rampant impunity especially under the Duterte administration,” Palabay said.

Palabay cited the case of Aeta peasant Edgar Candule, who was arrested by police without a warrant in 2008 and detained at Camp Conrado Yap in Zambales for three days, interrogated without a lawyer and physically tortured.

Candule’s case was eventually dismissed by the Zambales Regional Trial Court in 2010 but he has yet to be compensated.

“The provision of the Human Security Act on damages for unproven charge of terrorism and unlawful arrests did not deter the police in illegally arresting, torturing and detaining Edgar Candule. Now they are removing this crucial safeguard,” Palabay said.

—With a report from Jerome Aning