Papers, Newsletters, Reports & StatementsPCID on the enactment of the Human Security Act of 2007
Government is set to implement RA 9372 otherwise known as the Human Securities Act of 2007 on July 15.
The Philippine Council for Islam and Democracy, a non-government organization dedicated to the study of Islamic and democratic political thought and the search for a peaceful solution to the conflicts affecting the Muslim communities of Mindanao, joins the nation in opposing this piece of legislation which can potentially undermine the human rights of people.
They say you cannot judge a book by its cover. But here, you can judge a law by its name. RA 9372 is deceptively dubbed as the Human Security Act. The United Nations Development Programme’s 1994 Human Development Report, considered as a milestone publication in the field of human security, argued that security should mean not just insuring “freedom from fear” but also “freedom from want”.
Human security therefore has gone beyond the traditional notion of security, i.e., the right of the state to defend itself from threats, and has included the economic, food, health, environment, personal, community and political security. A Human Security Act therefore not only protects, but also empowers people and societies as a means of security. There is nothing in RA 9372 that even comes close to providing these.
What it does contain are provisions intended to protect a politically and morally insecure administration.
For one, the prospective abuse of this law in the hands of overzealous law enforcement agencies is enormously expected and has, in fact, already raised anxieties and fears. This government, after all, hasn’t exactly been a model of circumspection and reasonableness in terms of abusing its power. Executive Order No. 464, Presidential Proclamation No. 1017, and the so-called Calibrated Pre-Emptive Response Policy (“CPR”) are just some of the policies this administration has implemented under the guise of protecting the state.
We are especially fearful of the impact of this act in terms of the prejudice and discrimination that our Muslim brother and sisters suffer each day. Even without the law, Muslims have been subjected to harassment and unreasonable searches and arrests.
Specifically we view as affronts to human rights Section 7 which allows the surveillance of suspected interception and recording communications, which is viable through judicial authorization and Section 18 which details the detention of charged persons’ without warrant of arrest. Is the law intended to give these abuses legal character?
Our organization has devoted our collective wills to work for peace; we believe this act will not only fail in preventing terrorism but will threaten the rights and liberties of people. The same people who will be inconvenienced by this law are those promised to be the main beneficiary of it.
We reject this law and ask Congress to immediately repeal it.