MANILA (Reuters) – Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday passed harsh anti-terrorism legislation that human rights groups condemned as a weapon to attack opponents and stifle freedom of expression.
FILE PHOTO: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, dressed in a military uniform, reviews the scout troops on arrival on the 67th anniversary of the founding of the first scout regiment in the city of San Miguel, Bulacan province, north from Manila, Philippines, on November 24, 2017. REUTERS / Romeo Ranoco
The law gives security forces broad powers to act to combat militants, while legal experts say broad articles could allow discriminatory enforcement, privacy breaches, and the crackdown on peaceful dissent, even online. social.
Duterte’s approval comes after a United Nations report on the Philippines that highlighted him for publicly inciting violence and encouraging rights abuses, mainly during a drug war in which he promised to kill 100,000 people and forgive the police shooting the suspects.
His opponents fear an offensive against opponents of his popular autocracy before he leaves office in 2022, including journalists, lawmakers, priests and activists seeking his international indictment for thousands of drug war killings.
The law creates a president-appointed counterterrorism council, which can designate individuals and groups as terrorists and detain them without charge for up to 24 days. It allows 90 days of surveillance and wiretapping, and punishments that include life in prison without parole.
UN chief of rights Michelle Bachelet urged Duterte not to sign it. Human Rights Watch called the law a “green light for the systematic targeting of political critics and opponents” and said Duterte had “pushed Philippine democracy into an abyss.”
Amnesty International called it “a new weapon to brand and harass any perceived enemy of the state”, which “would worsen attacks against human rights defenders”.
Philippine rights group Karapatan said Duterte was seeking to emulate the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos: “This monstrous legislation is, without a doubt, the final piece in the puzzle of Duterte’s Marcosian delusions,” he said.
HIGH THREAT
Duterte, 75, had accelerated the anti-terrorism law through both houses of Congress during the coronavirus outbreak. His spokesman, Harry Roque, said Duterte had taken the time to study it, “weighing the concerns of different stakeholders.”
The president did not mention the law in a speech to soldiers on Friday.
The government says the law is based on the legislation of countries that have successfully dealt with extremism.
Defense chiefs say it will allow for a better response to internal threats, such as piracy, kidnappings and extremism by groups influenced by the Islamic State, which occupied a southern city in 2017 and is now increasingly carrying out more suicide bombings.
The approval of the law occurs when a series of legal and regulatory cases are brought against journalists and media organizations.
Among them are the media group ABS-CBN, with the order to suspend transmissions on television and cable channels, and the Rappler news website, involved in cases of tax evasion and illegal property. Rappler’s award-winning boss, Maria Ressa, was convicted of defamation last month in a ruling that sparked international dismay.
Editing by Ed Davies and Peter Graff
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