Sunday, February 11, 2007
Mayor wants terror bill approved fast
IF CITY Mayor Rodrigo Duterte had his way, he wants the Anti-Terror Bill to be passed "as fast as possible."
Duterte has been calling for the passage of the said bill, as he has a firsthand experience and had to cope with the damage that terrorists have done.
But various groups, including the youth in Davao City, have manifested opposition to the Anti-terror bill.
Karla Hyasmind Apat, vice president for Mindanao of the Kabataan Partylist, said in a phone interview that, "We respect the mayor's opinion, but we still maintain our position that Anti-terror bill is detrimental to the youth's voice in raising our concerns."
Apat added that because of the vagueness of the definition of the act of terrorism, their simple protests against tuition fee increase and other education issues could be interpreted as an act of terrorism.
Apat said at this point when the people are not sure whether terrorism is state-sponsored or not, the passing of Anti-terror bill could only be a tool for the President to allegedly suppress her numerous critics.
Thus, the youth said they cannot see a win-win solution in the horizon if the Anti-terror bill should be passed into law.
The Suara Bangsamoro Partylist, on the other hand, said the bill is not the solution to eliminate terrorism but instead this will further terrorize the civilians especially Moro people who have been tagged as terrorists.
Suara claimed that in the campaign of the Philippines and the US against terrorism, there are allegedly more human rights violated and more civilians being killed than real terrorists being penalized.
However, Suara said "we understand officials like Mayor Duterte who have been wanting the approval of Anti-terror bill because of his desire to give justice to the victims of bombings and harassment."
But unlike the youth party that cannot see a solution to the terrorism problem, Suara said providing and upholding social justice could be a factor to end terrorism.
According to Suara, if the people will not experience social justice in the sense that they are not provided options and means to uplift their lives, they would not care to participate in the government's campaign against terrorism.
"As we see it, it is only the government (officials) who are making efforts on the campaign, the people are not so involved as some do not even believe that there are really terrorists and those who do have other concerns such as survival of their families, thus decreasing the awareness and involvement of the people," said Suara.
Suara said in the end, it can only be through the people that threat of terrorism will end. (GLP)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 11, 2007 issue)
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