Too vague, broad, unconstitutional: Rodriquez says House anti-terror bill endangers human rights

By JOHN CARLO M. CAHINHINAN

The chairman of the House committee on constitutional reforms has scored the approval of the controversial Anti-Terrorism Bill on third reading on Wednesday.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, panel chair and one of the 31 congressmen who voted against the passage of House Bill No. 6875, saying that the measure “endangers our civil and human rights.”

“The State should guard against violent terrorist attacks, but should equally uphold the right of freedom of speech, right to peaceably assemble, and the Constitution. This representation from the second district of Cagayan de Oro votes no,” said Rodriguez.

A total of 173 congressmen voted in favor House Bill No. 6875 or the “An Act Defining, Preventing and Penalizing Terrorist Acts” which seeks to replace the Human Security Act of 2007 and impose a much broader policy to strengthen the country’s law enforcement against terrorism.

Rodriguez, former dean of the San Sebastian College of Law the proposed Anti-Terrorism, is “too vague and broad, and quite frankly unconstitutional.”

The lawmaker cited Section 4, Article 3 of the 1987 Constitution which states that “No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.”

“The need to suppress extremely violent terrorist attacks is as important as the need to uphold the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution,” said Rodriguez.

Muntinlupa City Rep. Ruffy Biazon, one of the primary proponents of HB 6875 make sudden change of heart and rendered a negative vote on his own proposed legislation.

Biazon, senior vice-chair of the House committee on defense senior vice-chair shocked his other colleagues after deciding to withdraw his support and authorship on the controversial measure, saying, he was disappointed over the decision of the House plenary to adopt a similar bill passed by the Senate under Senate Bill No. 1083 three days after it was certified as urgent by President Rodrigo Duterte.

Biazon, who sponsored and defended HB 6875 until the end, said congressmen should have been given the opportunity to propose their amendments to the measure.

For Biazon, the Lower House became a mere rubber stamp of the Senate after adopting the upper chamber’s version of the bill.

“My name could not be attached to a bill that is not my real work. So, my withdrawal as author of the measure is another thing that I would like to present to the House,” said Biazon.

Rodriguez shared the same sentiments of that of Biazon, saying that lawmakers “were not allowed to properly interpellate, debate, nor propose amendments” during the second reading passage of HB 6875 on Tuesday evening.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)