MANILA, Philippines — The bombing incident in Sultan Kudarat suggests that neither martial law nor the Bangsamoro Organic Law could guarantee peace in Mindanao, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.
Lacson urged the National Security Council and the troops on the ground to “take a hard look at their security plans and strategy, especially in the South, and try to avert the vicious cycle of talking peace with one tribal group while alienating the others.”
“The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) came into being and developed themselves into the dominant armed force in Mindanao after we dealt peace with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF),” Lacson said.
“As it may be shaping now, as we make peace with the MILF, a breakaway group is sowing terror,” he added.
Lacson urged his colleagues in the Senate to take up his Senate Bill 1956, or the proposed anti-terrorism act of 2018, because the existing Human Security Act of 2007 “has not been proving itself effective in addressing terrorism in our country.”
Senate Bill 1956 seeks to amend the Human Security Act by adding provisions pertaining to foreign terrorists and additional predicate crimes.
Lacson said there are gaps in the Human Security Act that have prevented authorities from implementing the law properly. He cited the case of the Marawi siege in 2017, which bared the “many loopholes of the current anti-terrorism law.”
“While an anti-terror law in itself cannot solve the problem of terrorism, an intensified one can, however, give the government and the law enforcement agencies the much-needed tool in dealing with the emerging threats of terrorism,” Lacson said.
Under the bill, the term terrorist acts would replace the term terrorism in order to remove the requirement of the acts being perpetrated for the purpose of coercing the government to give in to a specific demand.
“This has the effect of punishing the act of committing crimes that sow widespread extraordinary fear and panic, and not the purpose behind the commission of such acts,” Lacson said.
The bill also penalizes foreign terrorists, including those who travel to a state other than their state of residence, for committing or organizing terrorist acts; and those residing abroad who come to the Philippines in transit to commit or take part in terrorist acts to target other countries.
The bill clarifies that terrorist acts shall exclude legitimate exercises of the freedom of expression and right to peaceably assemble “where a person does not have the intention to use or urge the use of force or violence or cause harm to others.”
Under the bill, law enforcement or military personnel may conduct surveillance on suspected terrorists upon written authorization of the Anti-Terrorism Commission (ATC) and upon granting of a judicial authorization by the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Regional Trial Court (RTC) that has territorial jurisdiction over the area where the suspected persons are located.
In case of an actual or reasonable belief of imminent terrorist attack, the ATC may file an ex-parte application before the CA or RTC to instruct the Department of Information and Communications Technology to compel telecom and internet service providers to produce all customer information and call and text data records of any person suspected of terrorist attacks.
Access to any information gathered through surveillance shall be limited to the applicants, duly authorized ATC personnel, hearing justices or judge, clerk of court and duly authorized personnel of the hearing or issuing court.