Anti-Subversion Law Revival a Throwback to Martial Law – Satur

Deputy Minority Leader and Bayan Muna Rep. Satur C. Ocampo today advised President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to drop her “mindless support” for reviving the Anti-Subversion Law. At the same time, he urged the people to oppose such move because it is a throwback to martial law.

Ocampo 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,” Ocampo said. “In fact, the CPP-NPA gained strength under martial law,” Ocampo added.

“Unless her intention is to have another draconian law besides the anti-terror act to back up her impossible target to defeat the revolutionary movement by 2010,” he added.

The militant lawmaker said “Mrs. Arroyo will fail because she refuses to recognize the legitimate aspirations of the revolutionaries, who she derisively calls ‘terrorists’, and there’s a law against terrorists. Now, she wants to tag them again as ’subversives’ and wants to revive the law against them. Yet her regime has been charging Leftists with rebellion, under the revised penal code, and with common crimes.”

“A regime confused on how to deal with its perceived ‘worst enemy’ is bound to fail – leaving a trail of massive human rights violations and blood of innocent people in its hands,” he stressed.

Ocampo added that “Republic Act 1700 had wrong assumption – that CPP aimed to place the country under foreign rule. Ergo, reviving it is pointless, stupid even. To pass an ‘anti-insurgency’ law would duplicate the Revise Penal Code provision on rebellion. Have they gone out of their minds?”

The Bayan Muna lawmaker also criticized Mrs. Arroyo’s quick 180-degree turn from her Human Rights Day statement.

“After announcing the other day that she is aiming for ‘zero political violence’ and work with Congress to enact new laws to ‘protect’ human rights, she already backpedaled in less than 24 hours,” Ocampo said.

The Bayan Muna lawmaker vowed to “strongly oppose and challenge Mrs. Arroyo’s revival of the anti-subversion law both in Congress and the parliament of the streets.” #

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