Labor group junks new terror bill

By Dolly Yasa

BACOLOD City – The General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) opposed House Bill 6875 or the Anti-Terror Bill.

GAWA Secretary-General Wennie Sancho told Daily Guardian Friday that “If this bill becomes a law it will have a chilling effect on labor advocates and activists.”

Sancho said anyone can be tagged as a “suspected terrorist” due to the vague definition of terrorism which might give law enforcers and authorities greater powers and result in grave human rights violations and abuses.

“This bill might be used to intimidate, silence and jail critics, labor activists, political dissenters and critical media. This would endanger our freedom of speech and expression,” Sancho added.

Sancho also said that political dissenters and left-leaning activists might be labelled as “enemies of the State.”

He also said that labor is apprehensive that this New Terror Bill “might no longer distinguish the difference between legitimate dissent and subversion or the difference between commentary on armed struggle and advocacy on it.”

Patriotism and nationalism might be construed as treason, he lamented.
“When the country’s political system is subverted so that power and influence fall under the control of those who have no appreciation and respect for the common good, the system would most likely become a tool for oppression and the promotion of selfish ambitions,” Sancho said.

“If the institutions which normally provides checks and balances on the conduct of our politicians have been co-opted or destroyed, the real essence of democracy and public service is virtually lost.”

House Bill No. 6875 was passed by the House of Representatives on third and final reading on Wednesday with 173 affirmative votes, 31 negative votes, and 29 abstentions.