Makabayan lawmakers withdraw vote for 'Better Normal Bill' citing limitations on free speech
MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Carlos Zarate (Bayan Muna Party-list) withdrew his "yes" vote to the Better Normal Bill on Wednesday, citing in a letter its tendency to "impinge" on the public's right to free speech, among others.
House Bill No. 6864 or “An Act Establishing Public Health and Environmental Standards and Safeguards for the Better Normal in the Workplace, Public Spaces and Communities Toward a Sustainable Recovery from the Coronavirus Disease-19 Pandemic” makes health measures including wearing face masks and observing physical distancing mandatory amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic.
“While we recognize that none of the old must remain as we face the aftermath of this pandemic, upon further scrutiny and assessment, we found some major provisions in the approved bill to not be in accord with our party principles,” Zarate wrote in his letter addressed to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano.
Five other lawmakers under the Makabayan Bloc followed Zarate, including Reps. Ferdinand Gaite and Eufemia Cullamat (Bayan Muna party-list), Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers party-list), Rep. Arlene Brosas (Gabriela Women's Party) and Rep. Sarah Elago (Kabataan party-list) who also withdrew their "yes" votes.
'Better normal?'
The House on Tuesday approved the bill on its third and final reading, with 242 "yes" votes in total.
Besides mandating health protocols, the bill also requires owners and operators of public spaces to put up handwashing and sanitizing stations along with monitoring the temperature of any visitors.
Zarate, though, said he felt that a provision of the bill prohibiting public gatherings ran counter to the right to free assembly and was not in line with his party's principles.
“We place grave concern over the limitations on public gatherings as provided in the Bill's Section 6. B. Management of Spaces. The prohibition on gatherings, we submit, impinges on the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of our people to express themselves and to petition the government for a redress of grievances,” Zarate wrote in his letter.
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“In these days that the freedom of speech and expression are besieged, we cannot, in good conscience, support acts that we believe might only further curtail the said rights,” he also said.
Limitations on public gatherings
According to the rules set by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases, mass gatherings, like birthday mañanitas for instance, are prohibited under community quarantine to quell the transmission of the coronavirus.
Ahead of Independence Day in June, no less than the Palace was careful to remind the public that only ten people at a time were allowed to participate in protests at a certain area. Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque and Police Gen. Archie Gamboa, PNP chief, also asked the public to protest online instead, although online protesters have also been arrested without warrant.
READ: PNP chief: We 'tolerate' protests in UP, but don't exercise your freedom too much
Though the national police said it would practice "maximum tolerance" in dealing with protestors, both the State of the Nation Address and Independence Day have yielded warrantless arrests of their own. The Philippine National Police has generally not tolerated protesters.
Many arrests of protestors have cited social distancing as their basis, though photographs of the rallies have shown demonstrators wearing masks and observing physical distancing.
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