Senate to junk revival of anti-subversion law—Villar
Senate President Manuel Villar said the Senate would shut down any bill that would revive the Anti-Subversion Law even if this is supported by President Macapagal-Arroyo.
"Most of the senators are against it (revival of the law)… There is no place for it in the present time." Villar told reporters here on Sunday before he opened the Iwag Festival in Pototan town in Iloilo.
The President had earlier announced her support to revive the Anti-Subversion Law by incorporating some of its provisions into the recently passed Human Security Act as proposed by Sorsogon Rep. Jose Solis.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines has also repeatedly pushed for the law's revival as part of its efforts to crush the 39-year-old communist insurgency.
The anti-subversion law, or Republic Act 1700, was repealed in September 1992, during the term of former president Fidel Ramos. This made membership in the once-outlawed Communist Party of the Philippine legal.
But Malacañang has back-tracked on its plan to support the law's revival after it encountered protests from law makers, human rights violation victims and civil libertarians. Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye had announced over the weekend that the President will only support its revival if it has "grassroot support."
Villar said that there is no need to "resurrect from dead" the "entombed" Anti-Subversion Law."
"Reviving RA 1700 is retrogressive. It is like going back to the primitive years when we label people as 'communists' and 'insurgents.' It will be a throwback to the Jurassic era when mere membership in a group is ground for punishment when what should be sanctioned are overt illegal acts and not mere organizational affiliation," said Villar in a statement.
Villar said there is no reason to revive the law "against a group, which the government itself claims, is in near death," referring to earlier statements of military officials that it is succeeding with its plan to crush the insurgency by 2010.
He said an official proposal to revive the law would be viewed as a "tacit admission that we have a government that it is constantly being subverted that it has ask Congress for this kind of legislation."
Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo, who went underground during the Martial Law, said the revival of the anti-subversion law will not solve the insurgency problem.
He warned that it will only lead to "massive warrantless arrests, search and seizures, illegal detention, and worsen the sorry state of human rights in the country."
"Mrs. Arroyo ought to rethink her mindless support for reviving the anti-subversion law, which the dictator Marcos used to arrest and detain tens of thousands without charges under martial law but failed to defeat the CPP-NPA. In fact, the CPP-NPA gained strength under Martial Law," Ocampo said in an e-mailed statement.