The people who wanted the terror bill did not protect it during the legislative process
[Adapted from image by Madalyn Mcleod, themodernmythologist.com]
By Joe America
I think the Anti-Terror Bill is an example of a good intent gone bad under the oversight of a committee. The committee of which I speak is the Legislature.
The strongest proponents of the Bill are the generals . . . the AFP . . . who wanted to get out from human rights violations they are currently charged with as they deal with citizen-rebels and invader-rebels who hide out in ordinary communities, or the bushes. The troops now are damned if they do beat heads, and damned if they don’t . . . because then they get shot.
Under the Anti-Terror Bill, they can arrest and contain hundreds for up to 24 days, no questions asked. Then, if journalists get in the way, they can be rounded up, too.
That is the origination of the bill, I believe.
But in committee, other parties wanted their interests served as well, and one of them speaking loudly was the President, who seems to hold that any critic is terrifying. And his cybercrime honchos, who seem pumped up on authoritarian steroids, are more than happy to be terror struck as well as they haul dozens of ordinary Face Book denizens off to jail.
So the anti-terrorist bill got turned into an anti-anything-we-say bill, in the name of the god Terror.
The generals did not protect its original intent. Now they will live with the fall-out, easy recruiting by the left.
Was the law needed to make the AFP job easier? That’s good for debate. I would say it makes more sense to not have a terror law, but keep a Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the US in place so the eyes in the sky, arms, and training continue.
That’s why I’m disturbed. If terrorists are the issue, why pull the VFA?
So I think this bill got lost in the woods, and instead of Little Red Riding Hood emerging at Grandma’s house, we got the Big Bad Wolf instead.
Grandma, peering out the window and looking a lot like you and me in the doing, is inclined to scream the truth.
“Wolf!”
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
But in committee, other parties wanted their interests served as well, and one of them speaking loudly was the President, who seems to hold that any critic is terrifying. And his cybercrime honchos, who seem pumped up on authoritarian steroids, are more than happy to be terror struck as well as they haul dozens of ordinary Face Book denizens off to jail.
Question is whether there were influential whisperers into the Presidential Ear in this too.
Wolf!
the pres listens to anything and everything, except logic and reason. why dont he just come up with another of his infamous lists of anything and everything? simpler and easier to ditch, update and upgrade a list; bills can only be put on hold the way he has put on indefinite hold double plaka law. lot less costly yang list whereas terror bill is pricey and not only time consuming but can certainly serve to reinforce magnitsky law. already many of duterte’s cohort cannot travel to USA, their visa made nil and void. violators of human rights kasi.
this terror list is destined for the dunghill, methink.
Go is highly influential. Yang whispers in his ear, he whispers in Duterte’s.
Recently I am told by a confidant that Calida knows everything, as he said the Solicitor General figured out how to destroy those checks and balances to upturn the balance of power, and thus he considers Calida a dangerous evil genius, as there’s no way a wobbly PRRD could personally conceive such a disturbing, systematic and efficient plan of this scale.
Yes, Calida the legal mind, Go the connection to Chinese business interests, which may or may not deal with tria . . . oligarchs of a different shade. It is a government weaponized to destroy due process, restraints, and safeguards.
Ah, our Editor-Writer has hit gold with the current topic. The probable cast of characters and their contributions seem more interesting than a fiction writer may concoct.
Glad you found it worthwhile. I write better when the moon is full, something like howling into the keyboard. 🙂
the terror bill terrorizes citizens. two yrs of martial law in mindanaw was not helpful, its success questionable. and reading between the lines, defence sec lorenzana said nearly as much. supportive siya ngayon sa terror bill in much the same way he supported the ill conceived mindanaw martial law.
terror bill and bayanihan heal as one, and the virus is winninig! billions of money to be thrown into the covid war chest, and duterte comes up with terror bill? folks, dont ever question where covid money is going, gone and spent, or else. and where does AFP equates? more pay rises, higher hazard pay, and thinking of another terror terror terror bill to concoct, haha.
sen lacson is supportive din po of terror bill citing ex pnp chief bato’s prior experience. bato kasi pinakawalan ang terror suspect, could not hold the suspect for longer than 3 days kuno! only for the terror suspect to behead a captive later on.
me say, bato was impatient at dinampot ang terror suspect too early. bato should have put the suspect under close surveillance at all times of the day and night, day after day, night after night, week after week, month after month, and pounce only when all the boxes are ticked.
shoddy work gets shoddy result. sarap ang buhay ni bato.
Joe, I would defer to a legal opinion such as caliphman’s right about now. It would also be nice to hear from the likes of former Sen Saguisag. I wonder if the cases discussed could be framed from the principle of ex post facto legislation rather than creating a whole new can of worms like SB 1083, if I understand the principle correctly.
Agree. I suspect he would condemn it.
Should the TSH maintain a trusted consigliere/barrister to navigate through legal questions such as these? 🙂
You paying? 🙂 I think we have to rely on volunteers.
🙂
Within the government, the most vociferous McCarthyist enthusiasts of this measure turns out to be the cops, a lot more than the military, as some regional police departments’ Facebook pages are enthusiastically churning out anti-communist propaganda.
I day say calida is legal terrorist, haha. and npa and abu sayyaf are not just the only terrorists on our sacred soil.
we have medical terrorists too that bled medical fund, charging heaps for medical procedures that dead people cannot avail. and cops too as terrorists, the dirty ones that help perpetuate and hide crime, supportive of crime lords.
and there could well be terrorists in both senate and congress and both hiding in plain sight. political terrorists passing unsound bills after another, fond of insertions and oversights.
HISTORICAL WORDS AND MODERN VERSIONS
I am posting this play of words past and present if permitted. It relates to some “terror” when that subject is stretched, the latter being the topic of the current blog. I have masked the personages involved.
I did not know that the Dear Leader Walk to the Church to hold up the Bible after the peaceful protesters were gassed had a full tableau involving: the The Daughter carrying that same Bible in her bag to give to Dear Daddy at the right moment; and the AG had orchestrated the gassing until I read an Opinion Writer in nytimes.
The writer also had these to say:
[A Past President] gave his life trying to stop a clash of civilizations, “with malice toward none,” while [Another President] spends his presidency ginning up a clash of civilizations, with malice toward all.
When a Spokesperson of that Other President had the temerity to compare the latter to the British PM of WWII, one lawyer [known to the Opinion Writer] dryly noted: “We shall fight them on the golf courses; we shall fight them on Twitter; we shall fight them at Mar-a-Lago.”
Big discussion at home. No. 2 son has vetted NYTimes & Wash Post as incontrovertible gatherer/purveyor of facts. I proffered that the Lafayette Park police discovered baseball bats and other mob/riot paraphernalia strategically hidden for pickup at church vicinity and that presidential security details used non-deadly irritants on tear-gas employed at confrontation time. No. 2 son asked me who were my sources so he could vet them himself. Am still collecting my source-list. So we have a domestic impasse. So it boils down my source vs yours; like my historians vs his historians; my narrative vs his narrative since I nor he was a witness to events in question. Quo vadis? 😦
Mi esposa is watching the past coverages of Watts riots of 1965 and Compton riots with Rodney King & LA police at center stage to get a feel for the climate then compared to the street riots going on in Chicago and the two coasts on the CNN feeds. What a tangled, violent mess. Turns out, using the knee on the neck to pin dissidents is standard police control. Damn! I feel I’m the last to know of this sanctioned tactic. No wonder there’s rioting all over the place.
Yes. Police are getting brutal in response to charges of police brutality. They seem not to know their every step is being video taped.
sonny,
if you think about it, w/out even training in martial arts– as an aside Filipino martial arts which is used in many police depts, the use of elbows & knees is particularly the focus. Bruce Lee’s friend Dan Inosanto basically wrote the tactics for police on bladed weapons.
But if you think about it, you arrest and control a violent suspect by immobilzing their limbs. but the most effective is immobilizing the neck. a strong guy can move about, but have a 100 lb. female cop put her weight on his neck, the 250 lb guy will be immobilized.
handcuff then get up. place in police car.
Nice discussion at your home. Good to know that Son No. 2 is doing some vetting to have a fact-based discussion. Because you are right. We were not there when these things happen.
The interesting thing here is our favorite President lies and when confronted with lies taken from tapes, he lies still. What more vetting has to be done — at least when it comes to statements coming from his mouth.
Even more interesting is how the Republican Party has essentially become The President’s Party, as if the Party is owned by The President — and the laughable, if not sad, the way the top leaders of the party justify their defense of the President. My favorite in this department is Sen. Lindsey Graham.
At the rate our favorite president is hitting the thresholds of friend n foe, from leaders to constituency seems like he’s doing a good job of doing things short of tripping the 25th Amendment/Sec 4 button.
Appoint or replace as needed.
That’s a tough one. I think the NY Times is good, myself. I also follow the LA Times. Both have left tilt of popular journalists.
At normal times we feel content, things are simple. At non normal times, simple things become problematic. the dear leader is an an anomaly bcuz he das what he says. he tweets to his people bcuz the press spurts opinews to get their pay. he exagerates to give emfasis and life to the discusion and the opinewsters calls dis a lie or is it half truth or half lie with exagerations. he advocates locals be great and globals come second, other daliders dont like dis bcuz it cuts their influence and takes. there is dalider who emfasize his chinese past n der is a chinese empire who wants to be great again n no.1 in da world 2d to none. if she becomes numero uno den dash 9 lines are true n d south waters are at her disposal to bild more islets. God made the world colorful w/ green white n blu as predominant, the intelligent folks are red, yellow, brown, black n white in the outside but all equally red in the inside. down with old normal, and go go go new normal or else we will all get crowned. keep your distance as people are watching but if you two are in the closet do what you want, the closet protects you or reveals you later. ah many ofws are back home, what will dey do, the enterprising ones will survive but the non enterprising ones just wants to find work in da pinas. perhaps we can use them to be ofw construction workers in pinas spratley islands to bild more islands financed for use by pinas friendlies as joint command post and barracks to protect the south sea lanes of communication and marine environment…and perhaps to house ofw workers mining the oil in the waters (when will the oil in the sand be gone). too big to fail vs too small to succeed. in the black lands there is not only one kingdom, so is in the white lands (in the snow land area they broke up and the stan brothers of nations got bigger). the brown mans kingdoms are in the waters so it is hard to unite unless it is in a subcontinent. and the reds are scattered in the continents. will the huge yellows going for a break or gather them all for easier to become the master of the world. esteemed teacher, o learned one, tell me in simple terms what is the new normal.
The PNP says that honest, innocent citizens have nothing to fear from the Anti-Terror Bill should it become a law because it’s only for use against terrorists.
I recall they said the same thing about the drug war and yet Kian delos Santos met an untimely demise at the hands of the PNP.
it’s those slobs and lazy kapolisan we have to be careful about, too quick to arrest people. plus, they have different definition of terrorist now, been widened and enlarged to include maybe the media, journalists, students and activistas, you and me being vocal and critical of the overly sensitive but money laden public officials, etc.
our idea of terrorist may not be kapolisan’s idea of terrorist. terror bill can arrest any suspect and hold them for 14days without warrant. guess ko po, terror bill does not include illegals and pogo workers with criminal intent, those circumventing our covid fight and not reporting covid data dahil may sariling fly by night clinics and hospitals sila, operating under the radar and secretly treating their own kind. doh should be wondering how they dispose of hazardous wastes and biohazards. if wastes are just left outside the premise for our garbage men to collect . . . it’s no wonder we cannot control the rise and rise of covid transmission.
the new and wider definition of terrorist may now include bioterrorist and economic terrorist and those that deliberately harm our country’s health, defense, economic and mental well being.
US plans cutting forces in Germany. For a meaningful symbolism perhaps some of the forces could be redeployed to two sensitive island locations, Taiwan and Pag-asa. But to make this happen the countries have to request US to locate the forces in these islands (these two nations had substantial USForces presence before). For Taiwan to have US Forces in her is a defacto recognition of the independence of Taiwan by US. Perhaps Taiwan could also invite other nations (like Australia, Japan, Canada, India, ASEAN+6, UK, France etc… Taiwan as an independent country could join the ASEAN) who wish to recognize Taiwan as independent country to have some military alliance presence there too. Pag-asa could be made a joint USPHIL observation post thereby developing the island and other nearby islands to be a more permanent place to inhabit. Developing Pag asa and its nearby islands will create a lot of jobs for pinoys as these islands can become a logistics hub ala diego garcia. let pinoys become ofws in their own backyard. is this a good power projection symbol to curtail pinas atoll and island grabbing ala illegal squatting by the dragon 9dash line master. the alligators swimming around the island are terrorizing the pag asa island and the helpless pinoys in pag asa feel terrorized of not being able to protect themselves in case the alligators become very hangry (mekeniko). like people say defund the police…daLider says defund WHO but I say fund the ALLIANCE to curtail terroristics tendencies of a big master on small masters.
History is quite dynamic, eh? We tend to think of it as static, when we are in it. But it’s not.
victors write the historical narrative in their favor, the non victors write the historical narration of what went wrong to their favor… the victors and powers percieve they can dictate and non victors and lesser beings feels they are taken advantaged. speaking of the laws of the sea, perhaps a big and heavily armed ship from a powerful country reflag under UNCLOS flagship to do some humannitarian work for the pinoy soldiers stationed at a sandbarred pinas frigate at the spratleys. small bancas doing resupply are being terrorized by power coastguard ships and the banca sailors feel terrorized whenever they do resupply mission. pinas air force plane have some success in air drops. but airdrops cannot bring large repair materiel to make the marooned frigate more comfortable living for the pinoy marines there who are projecting the symbol that the place is a pinas territory. or this could be a good bayanihan mission of pinas and uncle sam red horses and seabees to do some work on the frigate. can the dragon ship blow its fire or do some terroristic maneuvers if a ship of equal or bigger does the resupply and repair mission. how about that small military mission to project power. its provocative but it is true balikatan between military alliance frenz. ah with an UNCLOS flagship presence too in the area can give symbolism of the laws of the sea.
A transcript of telefon conversation between Cutie, the brown nefew with his Uncle Sammy (akathangIsiplangpo)
Cutie brown nefew: hello uncle sammy. Can you hear me.
Uncle Sammy: hello there Cutie, my brown nefew. Glad you called. I was thinking of you.
Cutie brown nefew: Yes Uncle Sammy I heard thru the gravevine you can help me like you have said before. Now I need some help and really need the help.
Uncle Sammy: What is it you want, let us see what we can do if I can.
Cutie brown nefew: You see Uncle Sammy, I have a house in the big lake and I need to repair it. But a neighbor is giving me problem, I cannot do something because he looks strong and seems threatening. I am afraid if I start the repair, something undesirable may happen if you know what I mean.
Uncle Sammy: That seems easy and doable. No problemo, you want me to help you to do the rebuild because if I am with you your neighbor will think twice, three or four times to giving you the problems. Well I am glad you came to me for help, how can I refuse my
Cutie brown nefew, I would say you were a bit problematic sometimes but you are alright, a good nefew. How can I forget the good times we spent together. We bonded. Now tell me more.
Cutie brown nefew: you see Uncle Sammy I have only a banca that I use to resupply my folks in the lake house, and my neighbor has a big boat and harrassing me whenever I visit them my folks to give some food. We play cat and mouse manuver at night so I can go to the lake house. Now if you let me use your big boat so I can bring food and the repair materiel too so I can start my repair job. Of course your crew will have to operate the boat and my folks will assist. If you want and if it is possible my folks and your boat crew can do the repair together so we can finish the job faster. Uncle I tell you the place is very nice, I know you know it too because you were sailing near the area quite a bit. When the repair job is finished and we have a good place to stay I will invite you there so we can go fishing together and have some fun. Ah fishing is such fun, very relaxing just waiting for the fish to bite, and when I feel the bite I jump for joy.
Uncle Sammy: Ok Doki, when do we start. I look forward for the invite and fishing together and have real fun. Bye and take care. Hey, I forgot your tita SeeDeeSee says…maintain distancing and always wash your hands for 20 secs at least. God Bless. Bye.
History is quite dynamic, eh? tama po, joeam. history is now written by proactive maggots, biting or be bitten. sen lacson’s proactive stand on terror bill: to arrest suspect before crime can be committed kuno, aba typical of him to strike before the iron is hot. kaya strike ng strike nakakapagod talaga. got my meaning po?
if terror bill is indeed proactive, might as well stop all women from giving birth. their kids might just turn out to be terrorists so better to nip them in the womb. cheaper that way po, no diaper and milk formula expenses. no midnight feeding, no sleepless nights and no school expenses.
so, better to sterilize all women of child rearing age, problem solve, easy peasy.
uhm, my friends are not happy, dapat men should also be sterilized to be fair. burden should not be put on women alone, after all it takes concerted effort to make and birth a terrorist, the environment politically right and conducive for terrorist making.
proactive sen lacson should make sterilization imperative or offer incentives for couples to stop making would be terrorists, haha.
inefficiency of both kapolisan and military cannot be made efficient by the proposed terror bill is what I think.
for a start, they dont really know how to build up a case vs suspect. too wishy washy, too cliquey, too impatient and with less to lesser perseverance, plus they barely know how to interpret intel report. which to me it means the rank and file are fearful of making good and timely decision. and if they do make decision, it is mainly to please the man at the top.
mostly from dabaw sila and with barely any infusion of new and outside blood, terrorists whoever they maybe mindanaw based or not, know them dabawenyos only too well. knew too and onerously how dabawenyos operate and function. and so, therefore, easy to countermand them dabawenyos.
if kapolisan and military really want to be proactive, they should learn how to build up a case from the ground up, exercising due diligence, patience and perseverance and make sure case is tight.
and to dampot suspect only if there really is probable cause. too early and suspect is alerted. its cell goes into lockdown and disappear into the night, leaving kapolisan and military scratching their heads.