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Photo courtesy of Rep. Leila de Lima
Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima has filed two resolutions calling for a congressional inquiry into the enforcement of the country’s anti-terror statutes following the denial of bail to community journalist Frenchie Mae Cumpio and lay worker Marielle Domequil.
De Lima authored House Resolutions 786 and 787, urging the House committees on justice and human rights to conduct a joint investigation into Republic Act 11479, or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 (ATA), and Republic Act 10168, or the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 (TFPSA).
The move comes after Cumpio and Domequil were convicted in January of terror financing and sentenced to 12 to 18 years in prison after spending six years in detention. They were acquitted of a separate firearms charge.
“These laws should not be used as a license to put pressure on people, to red-tag or jail people with trumped up charges, much less to kill innocent people,” De Lima said.
She stressed that the purpose of the inquiry is to ensure that counterterrorism measures remain consistent with constitutional protections and do not become tools to silence dissent.
“Our objective is clear: to ensure that our laws protect our people instead of suppressing dissent. Counterterrorism measures erode their core purpose if they are weaponized by the State to promote a climate of fear, harassment and intimidation among human rights defenders, activists, youth leaders, humanitarian workers and civil society organizations,” she added.
House Resolution 786 seeks to determine whether the implementation of the ATA aligns with constitutional guarantees, including due process, freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association, peaceful assembly and the right to privacy, as well as the Philippines’ international human rights commitments. It also aims to assess whether sufficient safeguards exist to prevent overreach.
“Despite the noble intent of the law, reports of international human rights bodies cautioned that the ATA contains overly broad provisions and vague definitions that may be susceptible to abuse,” the resolution reads.
House Resolution 787, on the other hand, calls for a review of how the TFPSA is being enforced, particularly whether it has been used disproportionately against civil society actors and dissenters rather than targeting major money-laundering or corruption networks.
The resolution seeks to examine the “adequacy of existing statutory and regulatory safeguards on due process, judicial oversight of asset-freezing orders, evidentiary standards for terrorism-financing prosecutions, humanitarian and civil society exemptions, transparency and accountability mechanisms and anti-de-risking guidance” under RA 10168.
Describing the denial of bail to Cumpio and Domequil as “a serious setback in the fight for press freedom,” De Lima called for corrective action.
“Junk all the fabricated charges (and) end the weaponization of laws to suppress press freedom and fundamental liberties,” she said.