Friday, July 20, 2007 Ledesma: The Human Security Act By Jun Ledesma Sunbursts
THERE has been a lot of furor and drama over the Human Security Act. The loudest din comes from the same personalities that have not gotten tired of their futile crusade to remove President Arroyo from the presidency.
The other group who understandably abhors the anti-terror law belong to the conspiracy of the radical left and other criminal syndicates who are now restive their movements will be constricted.
There are other paranoiacs who feel their civil liberties will be curtailed. All of them connive in condemning the Arroyo administration for the passage of the security act. They want us to believe that the anti-terror law is a harbinger of martial law.
I say it's far from it. Nothing there that would proximate the conduct of martial law, which many of us went through. I am certain that those who protest the passage and implementation of the Human Security Act will grudgingly agree that there are absolutely no indicators that members of the Philippine National Police or the military establishment are displaying any move to curtail their freedom.
I am aghast to see and hear some sectors complain about the threat of the law on their freedom and security forgetting that just yesterday a bus was bomb, maiming several innocent civilians and that a few weeks ago terrorists bombed buses killing passengers and bystanders.
Or, how quickly have they forgotten the hundreds of ship passengers going down with the vessel at the Manila Bay after a bomb ripped through its hull, the victims of the train bombing in Makati, the scores who died in the twin terrorists attack on our airport terminal and wharf. Never mind the thousands who died in New York, Bali in Indonesia and in Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East.
Terrorists know no religion and they are no respecter of nationalities. They strike at soft targets in an opportune time where they can inflict the highest casualties. The horrifying the terror the sweeter is their victory. The bigger the human casualty the more significant is their acts of terror. Yet, none of these horrendous acts of savagery seemed to stir the mind of those who oppose the security act.
The anti-terror law is not President Arroyo whom they treat with repulsion. The law is for our security against the new and bizarre crime that has emerged along with the ideological and religious extremism and just sheer barbarism. Against these diabolic elements I would rather place my bet on our law enforcers. There maybe some bad eggs in the military and in he police but they are an inconsequential fraction compared to the rest who are true to their duty.
I cannot therefore be swayed by incendiary rhetoric of the opposition and I am certain that those who have seen the face of terror in the rubbles of the World Trade Center, in the mangled bodies in Davao ports and the monstrosity in resort at Bali, they too will not stand in the way of the full implementation of the anti-terror law.
Those who wail against the security law thought that they have found a new issue where they can converge anew and try to dislodge Arroyo. Unless they have better alternatives to offer other than the same oratorical refrain, I am certain that they will fail again. The same issue, the same faces, the same alliance born by their hatred against a President who cannot be cowed by threats of impeachment and all those jazz.
On hindsight, isn't this Human Security Act an opposition sponsored bill? It was the opposition legislators who castrated the original bill and introduced over a hundred amendments to the point that, in the words of Gov. Dodo Cagas, the law has become inutile? Cagas, who was a member of the last Congress speaks from where he stands. But the administration, I think has no other recourse but to make do with what they have in that HSA.
The law has enough safeguards; in fact, too many that I think it scares off the enforcers rather than the suspect. Now that the sad and sorry part of it. Be that as it may, let's give that law and this administration a chance to prove that this human security act can really defend us from threats of terrorism and organized crime syndicates.
BTW, is there no law or local ordinance that regulates rates of cable TV networks? Can they just unilaterally increase their rates without public hearing? Skycable for example has served notice that they will increase their rates anew. To justify this they informed subscribers that they are adding in a new program. Why don't they just remove the foreign programs which are irrelevant and furthermore we cannot understand anyway? Who's in-charge of this in the city council?
