Manila urged to eradicate terrorism, respect human rights
Manila urged to eradicate terrorism, respect human rights
MANILA (AFP): The Philippines should take a tougher stand
against international terrorism but must guard against
threatening human rights and democracy, a senior US official and
Filipino legislators said.
Their comments came amid growing public opposition to a
proposed bill aimed at fighting attempts to make the Philippines
a base for international terrorists.
The proposed law would allow certain arrests to be made
without warrants, as well as telephone tapping and access to
suspects' bank accounts.
Critics have accused President Fidel Ramos of pushing the bill
and other measures intended to fight a wave of bank robberies and
ransom kidnappings as a prelude to imposing strong-arm rule
similar to Ferdinand Marcos' martial law regime.
Winston Lord, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian
and Pacific affairs, said yesterday that in his meeting with
Filipino officials he stated "the need to fight crime and
terrorism internationally."
But he also "expressed hope that human rights would be
respected."
"There is always a debate and some tension in a free society
like the Philippines between order and liberty," said Lord, who
is on the Manila leg of an Asian tour.
"We would show a sympathy for the need for your president and
your congress ... to get at this problem of terrorists without
infringing unduly or unfairly on human liberty," he added.
Ramos' sister, Senator Leticia Shahani, said over state
television that she would seek revisions to the proposed law --
which she described as a "double edged sword" -- to tone down its
effects on individual liberties.
"I would also be very careful about violations of human rights
and I certainly would not want a return to martial law under the
guise of protecting the citizenry against terrorism," she added.
Police have said international terrorists were trying to set
up a base in the Philippines and could be plotting to sabotage
the annual summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum
here in November.
They cited the arrest of 35 suspected Pakistani and Middle
Eastern terrorists last year and their alleged links to Ramzi
Yussef, the reported mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center
bombing in New York.
Yussef was also linked to a mid-air blast inside a Philippine
Airlines jet over Japan in December 1994, in which a Japanese man
was killed, and a plot to assassinate visiting Pope John Paul II
here last January.