4. Peace talks
The enactment of Anti-Terror bill and the expected proscription of the CPP and NPA as terrorist organizations essentially forecloses the possibility of meaningful peace negotiations leading to a negotiated political settlement between the Government of the Republic of the Philippines (GRP) and the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP), Whether the NDFP is proscribed by the Arroyo regime as “terrorist” or not, it will find negotiations impossible with the reactionary Philippine government after the proscription of the CPP and NPA as “terrorist”.
According to NDFP Chief Negotiator Luis Jalandoni, The Arroyo regime has scuttled the peace talks. It has declared its militarist plan to destroy the revolutionary movement before 2010. It has flagrantly violated the Comprehensive Agreement on Respect for Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law (CARHRIHL) by committing crimes against humanity, perpetrating extrajudicial killings of more than 830 unarmed civilians, enforced disappearances on about 200 persons and frustrated killings on more than 350 persons, among other gross human rights violations.
The Arroyo regime has also charged those involved in the peace negotiations on the side of the NDFP with rebellion, thereby violating the Joint Agreement on Safety and Immunity Guarantees (JASIG). Also in flagrant violation of the JASIG, it has summarily executed Sotero Llamas, Political Consultant of the NDFP, and caused the involuntary disappearance of NDFP Consultants and their immediate families and staff, namely, Rogelio Calubad and his son Gabriel; Prudencio Calubid, his wife Celine Palma and two companions, Leopoldo Ancheta and Philip Limjoco.
Despite not being tagged yet as terrorists, the MILF and MNLF have in the past been linked by the government to the Abu Sayyaf and Jamaah Islamiya said to be operating in Mindanao. The terrorist tag is intermittently used by the US-Arroyo regime to blackmail the MILF into a disadvantageous position, if not eventual capitulation, in its stalled peace negotiations with the government.
5. State terrorism
The Anti-Terror law will nourish the monster that is state terrorism. The law contemplates a state of fascist rule without the necessity of declaring outright martial law.
The US-Arroyo regime will use the Anti-Terror Law as a legal bludgeon to intensify its all-out war policy against the armed revolutionary movement, to persist with impunity in extrajudicial killings and other human rights violations and to create a climate of fear and heighten political repression against its fiercest critics and the struggling masses of the people.
Within the context of Bush regimes global war of terror, Arroyos own anti-terror campaign is itself a form of terrorism. No less than the Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno said that the mindless war on terror has caused much of the human rights violations in the country today.
In many places in the world, the bitter experiences with the so-called US-led war on terror has caused the worlds people to clamor for a review if not reversal, of repressive laws and policies instituted in the name of ant-terrorism. The US Supreme Court for example has struck down as unconstitutional some of the practices employed by the Bush regime against US citizens and other nationals such as wiretapping and arbitrary arrest and detention.
Since the September 11 attacks in New York, the US government has been waging a so-called war on terrorism which involved the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq. The so-called war on terror is premised on what are now considered as lies of the Bush administration. This includes the lie that weapons of mass destruction were present in Iraq.
The war on terror has been discredited as being nothing more than a justification for and continuation of US imperialist aggression and expansionism. In the course of this war, peoples lives are being destroyed and their rights systematically violated.
The Arroyo regime has chosen to give its all out support for the US war on terror despite the worldwide condemnation and rejection of this policy. Arroyo has sponsored the ASEAN covenant against terrorism which gives the US a new platform for intervention in Southeast Asia. The covenant calls on ASEAN members to enact their own terror laws
Taken in the broader context of the crisis of the Arroyo presidency, the approval of the terror measure is also a move to get continued US support for the Arroyo administration government by showing the Philippine governments unconditional endorsement of the US terror war.
The HSA is also a means for the Arroyo regime to stay in power by suppressing its critics and foes. No amount of safety nets can make the new terror law any less malevolent. In the hands of a regime with an extremely poor human rights record, the so-called anti-terror measure can and will be easily abused to serve the campaign of repression of the regime. Foreign governments, the United Nations special rapporteur, the Permanent Peoples Tribunal and many other non-governmental formations have already assailed the worsening human rights situation under the Arroyo regime. This came even before the new terror law was implemented.
No amount of safety nets can make the new terror law any less malevolent. In the hands of a regime with an extremely poor human rights record, the so-called anti-terror measure can and will be easily abused to serve the campaign of repression of the regime.
There can be no middle ground on this one, not when our basic freedoms and rights are being threatened. The Anti-terror Law or Human Security Act, a patently fascist measure, must be stopped. We must use all available means to prevent the trampling of our rights and the imposition of undeclared martial law. We have frustrated this governments previous attempts at institutionalizing repression. We have defied the worst forms of repression. Once again we are called to stand together in opposing a rising dictatorship. ###
Terrorism
