Jiona E.

Cavales, JD-4B

A Position Paper Concerning the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020

We are now in the first quarter of another year, 2021, and the Philippines is in a knee-
deep struggle to keep itself afloat along with other countries amid the pandemic brought about by
COVID-19. We are indeed in a challenging situation.
Furthermore, the country is yet to take its significant steps and valuable strides to cross
another vital ordeal intensely argued and disputed in different government branches and society.
I am referring to the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 or the Republic Act No. 11479.
This Act was introduced in the upper house as Senate Bill No. 1083 by nonetheless
Senators Tito Sotto, Panfilo Lacson, and Maria Imelda Marcos on September 30, 2019, and then
supported in congress as House Bill No. 6875 by Narciso Bravo Jr. and Raul Tupas. These are
the lady and gentlemen who have considerably observed and found the tussle between the
government and the leftist forces (NPA and Abu Sayaff, to name a few), who have plagued the
country for more than 50 years now; unsympathetically distressing and displacing multitudes of
the Filipino people.
This Republic Act, with its title, “An Act to Prevent, Prohibit and Penalize Terrorism,
Thereby Repealing Republic Act No. 9372, otherwise known as the "Human Security Act of
2007", was passed on June 5, 2020, and consecutively signed by our president, Rodrigo R.
Duterte last July 3, 2020, and took its effectivity on July 18, 2020.1
With this law, it outlines terrorism as:
1. Engaging in acts intended to cause death or serious bodily injury to any person or
endangers a person’s life;
2. Engaging in actions intended to cause extensive damage or destruction to a
government or public facility, public place, or private property;
3. Engaging in acts intended to cause extensive interference with, damage, or
destruction to critical infrastructure;
4. Developing, manufacturing, possessing, acquiring, transporting, supplying, or using
weapons; and
5. Releasing dangerous substances or causing fire, floods, explosions when the purpose
is to intimidate the general public, create an atmosphere to spread a message of fear,
provoke or influence by intimidation the government or any international
organization, seriously destabilize or destroy the fundamental, political, economic or
social structures in the country, or create a public emergency or seriously undermine
public safety.2
These are the provisions that hang the law's constitutionality to be currently challenged
now in the Supreme Court by numerous groups and lawmakers alike. Even today, this Act has
been the subject of inquiry and analysis in the country's highest court for proper action and
disposition.
Taking into consideration, I am a strict adherent of such a law. I say this is because
vanishing has the days where we can sleep and rest easy in our abode without fear for our lives'
safety. I am a mother now of two kids, and I want continued and uncontested security for my
family. Skirmishes would just come about without provocation and would only appear out of
nowhere. We can never indeed be prepared, and that without order, there can be no permanent
and lasting peace.

1
Republic Act No. 11479, Philippine Gazette. July 3, 2020.
2
Esguerra, Darryl John (July 3, 2020) BREAKING: Duterte signs the anti-terror bill into law. INQUIRER.net.
 Not so long in the past, that Zamboanga Siege, an armed scuffle between a rogue Moro
National Liberation Front offshoot and our government ensued, which has claimed countless
lives of our countrymen. Businesses and day-to-day activities being affected in the event,
endangering the economic aspect of the said city. 3
Roughly, in just a matter of four years, occurred the Marawi Crisis. This was a clash
concerning our government and militants associated with the ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and
the Levant) that has lasted for over five months. It was claimed that the said atrocity was
considered the lengthiest urban battle in the Philippines' modern history. 4 I shiver to imagine the
brutality of such an incident to have happened and have been the subject of news coverage
during that time. Fatalities have amounted to 1,146, with the rogue militants incurring heavy
losses. But the lives of our government troops were lost too.
How much more can the government and we take? How many more lives will be
sacrificed for these atrocities to stop? How many long years will we have to endure hiding and
fearing for our safety when even in our doorsteps, in just a flick of a finger, we could lose our
lives and the ones we hold dear? When will we say, “We have had enough?!” It is a bleak and
depressing fact that we are the ones who have been killing each other, true-blooded Filipinos!
The time to act is now! It is very nerve-racking to note that a bill that has now been
legislated by both houses passed and signed by the uppermost power in the country to safeguard
our lives be challenged in court. These people who are in contradiction for the implementation of
such law are but utterly blinded, it seems, and that, they are more concerned to aid and serve
their welfares and interests. I wager they did not ask themselves this: “How can the government
craft this Anti-Terrorism Law if not to protect its citizens and just harm them?" A dilemma is
looking you straight in the eye.
According to the Anti-Terror Law of 2020, the description states that: advocacy, protest,
dissent, stoppage of work, mass industrial action, and other similar exercises of civil and political
rights "shall not be considered as terrorist acts only if they "are not intended to cause death or
serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person's life or to create a serious risk in public
safety." Isn't this sufficient defense and insurance to completely grasp the weight that the
government and its lawmakers are just looking out for us and our welfare, lest not our demise?
People need to wake up.
Moreover, it is a statistical fact and an open secret regarding the occurrence in the
University of the Philippines, which has been into constant fire about students being recruited
into the ranks of our “Red” brethren fighting for a cause that is not their own. This has been
repetitively made known to the public by no less than Lt. Gen. Antonio G. Parlade of the AFP's
Southern Luzon Command. This then gave rise to the UP-DND Accord abrogation, which will
permit our government troops to come inside UP premises to check illicit activities related to
student conscription. And to think, this is a state-funded institution! I could helplessly shake my
head in repugnance.
Similarly, in my opening declaration, we are now at a crossroads whether to have this law
come into full effect and drop all probes and inquiries regarding its constitutionality in the
Supreme Court and let it take its place for the betterment security of our society. I can understand
that safety is our number one priority, and we, the Filipino people, have agonized ceaselessly
before in the hands of a dictator. Thus, it has been etched into our being that we have decided,
never again. But, we must open up our hearts and thoughts to let this law take its course.

3
Reuters (September 28, 2013). Zamboanga crisis is over.
Wenceslao, Bong O. (September 19, 2013). "Ravages of war." Sun Star Cebu.
4
Viray, Patricia Lourdes (October 24, 2017). “Fact Check: Duterte’s claims on US aid to the military. The Philippine
Star.
 Fingers crossed, we can only pray for the best that everything will be just fine and that all
would turn out as what we have hoped for, since this law has firsthand been stringently
scrutinized and examined not only by one but of many, to serve for the benefit and welfare of the
hoi polloi.
To conclude, I then further reiterate my unwavering stand regarding the full
implementation of this Act. I could not express more than the points I have stated above. We
need this, and we need it now. There can be no better and more adequate time.