EDITORIAL - Half-baked laws

Even before the implementing rules and regulations for Republic Act 11709 can be drawn up, the 19th Congress is already preparing to amend the law. The declared aim of RA 11709, signed by Rodrigo Duterte in April last year, is to push modernization and professionalization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, by prescribing fixed terms and increasing the retirement age for key AFP officers, and providing for “a more effective” attrition system.

Recent developments in the military and defense establishments are showing that those behind this law failed to do their homework. As the confusing musical chairs between Gen. Andres Centino and Lt. Gen. Bartolome Bacarro has shown, RA 11709 still does not guarantee a three-year fixed term for the AFP chief of staff. Other senior AFP officers, meanwhile, are worried that they can no longer be eligible for promotion because of service tenures specified in the law.

The surprise leadership changes in the AFP recently led to the resignation of Jose Faustino Jr. as Department of National Defense officer-in-charge, and possibly of Clarita Carlos as national security adviser. Both Faustino and Carlos had said they were kept in the dark about Bacarro’s replacement with Centino. While Carlos did not specifically point to Centino’s appointment as the reason, she said over the weekend that she deemed it no longer “politic” for her to remain as NSA.

RA 11709 is supposed to promote professionalism and put an end to the revolving-door policy that has hindered continuity and stability in the military service. The policy is also costing taxpayers a lot of money for the pensions of AFP top brass who benefit from the revolving door.

Don’t legislators invite a host of resource persons to congressional hearings when crafting laws? So much time, effort and public resources are expended in legislation. RA 11709, however, is not the first law that has had glaring flaws from the get-go.

Law enforcers, for example, refused to apply the Human Security Act of 2007 or RA 9372 because it eliminated the presumption of regularity and left no room even for honest mistakes in counterterrorism and other legitimate operations to keep the public safe. RA 9372 has since been repealed and replaced with RA 11479, the equally controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.

The original law against hazing, RA 8049, effectively allowed the barbaric practice, starting with the law’s title “regulating hazing and other initiation rites.” It was replaced in 2018 with RA 11053, expressly “prohibiting hazing and regulating other forms of initiation rites…”

Now the 19th Congress is rushing to amend RA 11709, amid persistent rumors of unrest in the AFP. RA 11709 shows what happens when lawmakers are simply stampeded into going along with the super majority.