Crackdown against anti-Arroyo groups, activists feared
Students warn of a mid-quarter ‘storm’ vs GMA
The Kabataan Party today warned that Malacanang’s recent shove to outlaw the Communist Party and use the Terror Law against insurgents presage possible crackdown against organizations identified with the legal Left.
“The Terror Law is not really intended to go after communist rebels but is designed to legitimize the government’s all-out war policy against the legal progressive movement which has remained the staunchest critics of the Arroyo administration,” Kabataan Party President Raymond Palatino said.
Palatino said the government and military’s ongoing vilification campaign and red-baiting against militant organizations and anti-Arroyo party lists come as a convenient approach to justify concentrated attack against the legal Left.
“The Terror Law is a retrogression to the dark years of martial rule when organizations critical of the Marcos regime were outlawed and dissent was considered a subversive act. The only difference now is the label terrorism.”
“Such scenario vulnerably opens civilian or non-combatants to military harassment and even liquidation. If the military can make people disappear and kill activists in broad day light even with the existing legal and Constitutional restraints, what would keep it from doing more now that the Anti-Terror law will soon be in place? The Terror Law only feeds the growing killer monster that Arroyo created out of her insecurity and greed,” Palatino pointed out.
Meanwhile, the National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) warned the Arroyo administration of a brewing mid-quarter ‘storm’ should the government continue to implement the Terror law and use it against its critics.
“A storm of student protests will engulf schools and the streets in the coming weeks as an act of defiance against this draconian measure. We will not allow this government to rob the youth and the people again of hard-won freedoms and civil liberties,” NUSP Secretary General Alvin Peters said.
Peters said the NUSP and Kabataan will hold a series of noise barrages during lunch hours and protest actions in various universities nationwide starting next week until Arroyo’s State of the Nation Address on July 23.
“We will not be cowed. We have defied the Calibrated Preemptive Response, the No-Permit-No-Rally policy and the Presidential Proclamation 1017 and will continue to defy the Terror Law. The students and youth will be at the forefront of the nation’s crusade to defend democracy and human rights against anyone who threatens it.”