Anti-terror law draws flak from HR activists in HK

We made sure our voices are heard and that the Philippine government heard it well.

Today, July 12, we held a picket protest at the Philippine Consulate to condemn the implementation of the Human Security Act of 2007. We saw it as another means for the Philippine government to legalize further the repression it has wrought all over the country already besieged with extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and an array of human rights violations.

Various local organizations joined and supported the picket. Bruce Van Voorhis of the HKCAHRPP led his colleagues from the Asian Human Rights Commission. He opened the program by denouncing the anti-terror legislation and that it should be repealed soon.

Following him was Father Dwight dela Torre of the Philippine Independent Church who read the statement of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines.

Elizabeth Tang of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions also expressed condemnation for the law, comparing it to the Article 23, an anti-subversion legislation which was resisted by the Hong Kong people in 2003 and later on shelved. She said it was a sign of cowardice on the part of the government to push for a very repressive law such as the HSA.

Dolores Balladares of the United Filipinos in Hong Kong closed the program by stating that the migrant workers will not be cowed into silence by this act from the government. She pledged that more migrant workers will come and protest against the HSA, and that no dictatorship has ever succeeded with people remaining critical and ready to fight.

Below is a statement of the HKCAHRPP.


“License for graver rights abuses”
Anti-terror law draws flak from HR activists in HK

The new Human Security Act (HSA) of 2007 is a license for the Philippine government and its military to commit even graver human rights abuses.

This was predicted by the Hong Kong Campaign for the Advancement of Human Rights and Peace in the Philippines (HKCAHRPP) as the Philippine government gears for the implementation of this anti-terrorism law on July 15.

HKCAHRPP is among groups outside the Philippines that is campaigning for an end to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances in the country as well as rendering of justice to the victims of such abuses.

“The Philippine government is yet to act on the hundreds of cases of human rights violations that have caused protests both in the Philippines and around the world. Now with the HSA the issue of terrorism is in danger of being used to perpetuate more repressive moves against government critics,” said Bruce Van Voorhis, co-convener of the group.

Van Voorhis criticized the fast-track pace that the act’s approval and implementation took while the call to resolve the country’s extrajudicial killings has still not been answered and has been met by promises, the creation of task forces that were eventually proven ineffective and even outright denial that human rights in the Philippines has worsened.

“Intensified repression appears to be the top priority of the Philippine government and not justice nor human rights,” he added.

Meanwhile, Eman Villanueva, also co-convener of HKCAHRPP and the secretary-general of the militant United Filipinos in Hong Kong (UNIFIL-MIGRANTE-HK), expressed his fear of the act’s repercussions to legal activist organizations of Filipinos within and outside the country.

“We migrant workers are also one of the sectors that are vocal in our opposition to various policies of the government. Does this mean that we will also start to live in fear every time we come home, that the threat of being charged and prosecuted as a ‘terrorist’ under the HSA will loom above our heads?” he averred.

Villanueva said that even prior to the HSA the Philippine government and its military had already been arbitrarily arresting and detaining people affiliated with known opposition groups, such as the cases of the Batasan 5 and Congressman Crispin Beltran.

“The HSA will mean that us ordinary people who only practice our civil and political rights to air our grievances can also easily be subjected to unjust deprivation of our rights and liberties,” he furthered.

Villanueva said that HKCAHRPP will continue to exert pressure for the resolution of human rights violations in the Philippines and the immediate repeal of the HSA.

“The existing rule of lawlessness in the Philippines is already condemnable. To make repression legal as well with the HSA is a mockery of justice and human rights,” Villanueva concluded.#