Pagana, Jane Anne

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PERSUASIVE ESSAY
ON ANTI-TERRORISM ACT OF 2020

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte has approved into order the replacement of the Human Security
Act of 2007, the provocative "Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020", on July 3, 2020. This has greatly sparked
tremendous controversies and bothersome presumptions among the Filipinos. The aforementioned bill
created extensive resentment and judgment from various divisions across youth groups, academia, church,
business, and civil society. Analysts had several doubts: poor timing; reliability concerns amongst the
bureaus implementing it; the danger of exploitation; and potentially illegal stipulations. The bill formed
divisions when it should have united the nation upon the advancing intimidation of terrorism. Even
Amnesty International has released a statement regarding the approval of this law deliberately reaching
out to the Philippine government to decline this enactment that encompasses critical stipulations and
dangers further threatening human rights in the country.

Personally, being a student and a citizen of the Philippines, I extremely find it worrisome and
bothering that this bill has already passed, because it is a law that lends itself easily to abuse. On a simple
note, he or she who speaks freely and loudly will be oppressed and punished for no sensible reasons. This
bill will label everyone, who goes against the government, as an enemy of the government and will face
several punishments for it. News regarding people dying in the broad daylight in the middle of the streets
with no actions to capture the culprits and upholding no justice for the victims frightens the living soul
out of me. Especially, when most of the victims of these inhumane and gut-wrenching deeds are the ones
who have spoken their lungs out to unravel and expose the truth and end the tyranny of this government
to its people. There are also people who aren't familiar with the concept of silence over truth is often red-
tagged by the government. Red-tagging pertains to the ill-disposed blacklisting of people or groups
crucial or not entirely in support of the management of a current government administration. The
blacklisting practices the sort of being "tagged" as either a communist or terrorist or both, notwithstanding
one's exact political opinions or group associations. And with the bill of Anti-Terror Law in effect, this
malicious blacklisting of people would become much more often, inconsiderate among people, and
unequal treatment of the marginalized sectors.

To elaborate it more extensively, I would like to initially explain the acts of terrorism in more
well-laid-out definitions. A terrorist engages in a sort of act that intends to provoke death or to seriously
injure any person physically or compromises an individual's life. Terrorism is also when one engages in
deeds meant to begin widespread harm or damage to a government or public amenity, public area, or
private equity, also, the definition encapsulates the engagement of intentional activities causing
tremendous disruption with, destruction, or damage to a significant infrastructure or critical
establishment. Additionally, it could be also acknowledged in the forms of activity of production,
development, acquisition, possession, transportation, supplement, or usage of weaponry and or any forms
of ammunition. Ultimately, terrorism is also widely recognized by the government in forms of releasing
hazardous elements or prompting fire, flooding, or discharges when the intention is to threaten the general
public, generate an environment to develop a word of despair, provoke or manipulate by threatening the
government or any global system, severely destabilize or damage the primary administrative, financial, or
social systems in the nation, or initiate public distress or gravely weaken public security.

Upon expounding the definitions of what terrorism does look like in the Philippines, let me now
strengthen my stance on this dilemma by explaining how would the power of the Anti-Terrorism Bill be
imposed on the Filipino citizens. Initially, the law being in effect, people or any organizations who initiate
proposal, incitation, conspiracy, and participation in the plans, programs, and facility of an offense under
the act, as well as the people or groups who show support and assistance to ‘terrorists’ as specified under
the bill, or hire members in a ‘terrorist group’, could be detained and charged with life imprisonment
without parole. Now, with this type of government that we currently have, an incompetent and inept
group of people sitting, leading people towards their demise, benefiting themselves by profiting and
exploiting its own people, doesn't regard the safety and security of the general public and mistreats the
marginalized sectors and provides special handling of the people who the President favors, even if the
strict rules inflicted were negligently violated by the same people who imposed it.

Now, imagine being wrongly tagged as either a communist or a terrorist by your government by
just simply handing out your viewpoints on the administration, which you have the right to do, then the
government starts to suppress your voice and then finally jailed you for being outspoken about their
incompetence. The bill will proffer 12 years' confinement to everyone that will be committing the
offenses under the bill. Those offenses include intimidating to perform an act of 'terrorism', encouraging
other people or offering to perpetrate acts of terrorism, deliberately and consciously participating in any
terrorist organization, and serving as an associate in the job of terrorism. The bill allows 'suspects' under a
14-day detainment without presenting a judicial warrant of arrest and can be prolonged by 10 days, and
emplaced under surveillance for 60 days, that can be continued by up to 30 days, by the police or military.

To sum this all up, it all boils down to the unity of the Filipino citizens, to see the deception and
incompetence of our government. More people may be still be blinded by this government's tyranny and
inauthentic and inefficient leadership, but the others should not stop to find the courage in helping them
see the wrongs in the system. Speaking out is valid and should not be taken away from the people, for
that's what fuels our motherland and freed us from the foreign conquerors who enslaved us. If it takes
more than speaking to regain our freedom as a country, we would go through the extremes just to be free,
and make sure it stays that way.