Anakpawis Party-List From the Office of Rep. Crispin Beltran He can be contacted via his cellphone number 09278711080, or through his phone line in the Philippine Heart Center, 925-2401 loc 2433 Ina Alleco R. Silverio, chief of staff 931.6615, 09195065269 News Release Saturday, June 23, 2007 PNP, AFP, GMA government cannot be trusted with a weapon such as the Human Security Act Detained Anakpawis lawmaker Crispin Beltran today said that even as the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other adjunct state security agencies prepare to implement the Human Security Act (HSA) this July, civil libertarians, human rights groups and people's organizations are also preparing to meet the HSA head on and campaign for its immediate repeal. Beltran said that the HSA now constitutes the most serious, vicious and comprehensive attack against civil, political and human rights of Filipinos. "It's the US Patriot Act Philippine version, and it aims to achieve what the Patriot Act has in the US: curtailment of the people's rights to associate, organize, demonstrate and express legitimate dissent against the excesses and abuses of the government," he said. Beltran said that the PNP leadership's declaration that they were making the HSA mandatory reading for all PNP members in no way eases the danger of the HSA. "The very law itself is a dangerous threat against civil, political and human rights; as implemented by forces of the PNP – an institution hardly know for upholding and protecting civil rights – the HSA is a brutal weapon of repression." He said that under the law, warrantless arrests, indefinite detention without charges, confiscation or private property and violations of other privacy laws will become legal. ""The Philippines will become even more of a police and military state. This is serious regression in the country's political evolution." The veteran labor leader turned lawmaker charged the PNP of being an institution increasingly oriented towards violating the rights of civilians. He said that PNP elements are certain to become even more dismissive of civil rights and become even more emboldened to abuse police authority using the HSA as legal shield. "While it is true that the Macapagal-Arroyo government projects the HSA as a means to capture, convict and punish supposed terrorist groups such as the Abu Sayyaf, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and al-Qaeda, there is an undeniable possibility and probability that the real target are the activist people's organizations including progressive party-lists, anti-corruption networks and human rights groups who are active in exposing the corruption and human rights violations of the incumbent administration," he said. "We cannot trust the Macapagal-Arroyo government with such a weapon such as the HSA. For all the supposed good intentions of the law proclaiming protection and safety for the civilian populace against the scourge of terrorism, the record of the Arroyo government and its police and military institutions shows that the law actually only be used to violate civil rights. There was never any need for an anti-terrorism law because of the already existing laws prosecuting serious crimes." Beltran said that the true goal of the Macapagal-Arroyo administration was not so much as to crush terrorism but to crush righteous political dissent. He said that the violence wrought by the terrorists groups would have long been put to an end if it were not for the inherent and deep-seated corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and even the Philippine National Police (PNP). He also said that Pres. Arroyo herself has been previously heard label the democratic protest movement and its members as the ones to blame for the instability of her government, and hence should be neutralized. Beltran said that the progressive party-lists for their part will file bills and resolutions calling for the immediate repeal of the HSA on the grounds that the law itself if vague and hence prone to abuse by state forces. # -- Anakpawis Partylist http://www.anakpawis.tk _______________________________ Sa darating na Mayo, iboto ang Anakpawis Party-List! Lakas ng Masa, sa Konggreso at Lansangan!