#junkterrorbill

art by the wonderful @franshookie-art (DO NOT REPOST this image without their specific permission. check out more of their art on twitter.)

hi, all.. i know that a lot of our focus is on the BlackLivesMatter movement atm (which is wonderful and should’ve happened a long time ago), and i hate to distract you from that, but there’s something horrible happening in my country, the Philippines (yes, the one being lead by the so-called Filipino version of Donald Trump), right now.

our national government has passed a bill that’ll essentially take away our constitutional rights to freedom of speech and fair trial. it’s called the Anti-Terrorism Bill, but we’ve dubbed it Terror Bill. here’s a summary of what it entails:

if you want to read the actual bill in its entirety, here’s a link to the official Senate of the Philippines website, where you can download a pdf copy. i’d like you to keep in mind the political climate in our country, though, and just how rampant corruption and police brutality are here.

it has already been passed by the Senate; all it needs is the House of Representatives’ approval, and it will be enforced. if you want to help stop this from happening, here are a few ways:

sign and share this petition. we’re so close to 300,000 signatures!!!

send e-mails to the Office of the President and the Senate. there’s an e-mail protest currently going on. i have qualms about copy-pasting the message, but ultimately, this method is a lot more effective than petitions:

these posters were made and posted by @tentenyukki on twitter.

educate yourself about the bill and how it will affect us when it’s approved. here are some news articles, editorials, and thought pieces to get you started:

🗞 gov’t endorsing/defending the bill: 1, 2, 3, 4

🗞 reactions to the bill’s passing: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

spread the word. on social media, our tags are #JunkTerrorBill and #JunkTerrorBillNow, but don’t stop there; tell your friends and family. please. people need to know this is happening.

your help could save the lives of millions of Filipinos, and we’d really, really appreciate it. i don’t usually ask for much, but when it comes to urgent issues like this, i can’t stay silent. unlike with BLM, i can speak my truth about this because i know personally what it’s like to be a Filipino citizen and to live in the Philippines. i hope it’s heard, and we keep an ounce of what little dignity we have as a “sovereign” country and rights as a “sovereign” people.

some of you might unfollow or get mad because this isn’t strictly studyblr content, but it’s not about aesthetic right now. i need your help. we need to hurry.

#JUNKTERRORBILL please sign the petition

On May 29, the Philippine Congress approved the senate version of the the Terror Bill which posses as a major threat to freedom of speech, especially during this times when dissent in media platforms is becoming a trend for the modern-day Filipino.

(Credits to College Editors Guild of the Philippines, CEGP)

Now, you might think that this bill just happened to come around but the timing is all too convinient. The reason why dissent is rising among the masses is because the executive branch of the government has frankly done a piss poor job at handling the Pandemic. They have continued to keep us quarantined, with only those considered essential businesses allowed to remain for months. It is only now in June that they have allowed people to work as long as they keep at a skeletal system. The main problem comes down to the fact that the government has yet to implement mass testing and even contract tracing for the matter, making the quanratine lose all meaning in the first place. To add up to all this, the administration continues to accumulate debt to “fight the pandemic” but claim they do not have the budget for mass testing. 

And to make matters worse, the head of the administration decides to fight a virus the only way he’s been fighting things, with machismo and guns. There have been cases where the police overstepped their bounds under the banner of ‘keeping the quarantine safe’ wherein they broke into a private residential building and also a homeless shelter because these places allegedly did not follow quarantine protocols. There was also a case of a soldier killing a veteran having an episode despite the residents of the area shouting he had PTSD and to leave him be. We cannot also discount the rapid increase of the Extrajudicial Killings fueled by the executive’s drug war that pretty much ramped  up police brutality in the Philippines by quite a lot.

Now, this bill is giving them more power to by-pass the Judiciary which is the only thing keeping them in check. As per Rappler: “ the bill would allow the Anti-Terror Council (ATC), made up of top cabinet officials, to do functions otherwise reserved for courts, like ordering the arrests of people it has designated to be terrorists.” 

Here are some as cited by CEGP. Below are some of the sections of Bill 1083, aka Terror Bill, although it feels rather more approriate to be called Martial Law 2.0. Below are some of the questionable provisions in the bill.

These two provisions are quite questionable as their vagueness could allow tagging of dissenters as terrorists. The head of the executive branch is actually quite fond of using mixed words and blurring the lines between dissenters who only criticize in hopes of improvement of the system as opposed to terrorists who seek to destroy it. This only adds oil to the fire, really.

Here we see that included in the wiring tapping are those individuals accused solely upon mere suspicion that would allow the police to invade our privacy just because we criticized the government a little too much more than they like. Now, there have been restrictions here either like between lawyers and clients or doctors and patients but this still stands that this is an invation of privacy,

Now Sec. 29. Detention Without Judicial Warrant of Arrest that takes the cake out of them all. Persons again tagged as terrorists by the ATC under mere suspicion can be detained for up to 24 days without a warrant, which is the first line of defense you have against a police violating your human rights. Although, if you do look up the entire provision, included is a follow up action of reporting to a court Judge “immediately”, there lacks a specific timeframe around the word “immediately” that again could allow the police advantage via vaugeness of this bill in their favor. 

The purpose of this bill is so obvious that National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers chair Neri Colmenares even spoke up, stating that “ This isn't really to go after the Abu Sayyaf or terrorists, or whoever they call as terrorists... I think the reason they actually need this bill is for the dissenters, the opposition.” (translated from Tagalog).

Save the voice of the Filipinos. Do not let them change the narrative. Hold the government accountable for their lapses. Dissent is not terrorism. Dissent is duty. #JunkTerrorBill

1. reblog posts.

2. sign this petition.

3. EMAIL PROTESTS. this is the main thing that is proven to be most effective. i prefer doing this over the petition because petitions have a lower chance of working. what you can do is email our government anoymously about junking the terror bill and the instructions and templates for the email are all here.

From this video by Kurzgesart.

They explained that Anti-terrorism bills all-over Europe only destroyed the liberty of non-violent civilian citizens, creating terror, violence, and civilian deaths. The police themselves were doing the terrorisms to their own countrymen, which only made their country more prone to civilian danger, totally undermining the cause of anti-terrorism bills. It happened last decade and reforms were already done. We should learn from examples.

They also explained why war on drugs is a destructive, counterproductive and old-fashioned way to solve drug addiction. If people up there knew research, they would have found a better solution that Switzerland had done back in the 1980s.

Also, if you kids want to peacefully junk terror bill, stay respectful. You know how adults react when you agitate them. They turn to corporeal punishment. Please stay peaceful. Don't bombard government sites with more violence. Show them you are worth the trust. Don't mention names. Especially of the Executive branch, as they have not decided yet. Say you are disappointed with the legislative, and hoping the executive will do better. Be passive-agressive. Be peaceful.

Just inform, educate, advise. And be professional while doing so.