KARAPATAN called “laughable” reports that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is considering charging Vice President Sara Duterte of violating the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA), as the human rights group said that “the real purveyors of State terrorism are now at each other’s throats.”
“This shows how the terror law could arbitrarily be weaponized against anyone perceived as an enemy,” said KARAPATAN secretary general Cristina Palabay. “Indeed, this is how the ATA has been systematically used since its inception under the Duterte regime to harass and persecute activists and suppress dissent.” To date, more than a hundred activists have been charged with allegedly violating the ATA and the law against terrorist financing.
“If the DOJ pursues its plan, Sara Duterte will be having a taste of her own poison,” said Palabay. “The original terror-mongers who conceived of, and enforced, the ATA as a repressive tool against the people are now finding themselves haunted by their own creation.”
“The DOJ, of course, will be playing the same role it always has, as the manufacturer of trumped-up terror cases against activists or the ruling regime’s political enemies,” said Palabay. “Ordinary Filipinos and activists experienced illegal raids in their homes or offices, with evidence planted against them, as they are charged with trumped up cases or killed.”
“The DOJ also has the added role of exonerating perpetrators of State terrorism against activists and other dissenters, the way it let the killers of the Bloody Sunday massacre victims go scot-free,” she added.
“The use of the ATA and its evil twin, the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act, against activists and ordinary folks should stop. We reiterate our call for the repeal of these terror laws, emphasizing their detrimental impacts on the exercise of political dissent and rights and freedoms of citizens,” Palabay concluded.#
