{"id":260810,"date":"2020-07-08T00:05:38","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T04:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=260810"},"modified":"2020-07-08T00:05:38","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T04:05:38","slug":"nothing-to-fear-if-youre-not-a-terrorist-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/07\/08\/nothing-to-fear-if-youre-not-a-terrorist-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"Nothing to fear if you’re not a terrorist: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
President Rodrigo Roa Duterte talks to the people after holding a meeting with the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) core members at the Presidential Guest House in Panacan, Davao City on July 7, 2020. ARMAN BAYLON\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear about the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 or Republic Act 11479 because it will only be used to defend the nation from terrorism, President Rodrigo Duterte said.<\/p>\n

In a taped public address aired early Wednesday, Duterte said the law targets terrorists, especially those who carry out bomb attacks in public.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the law-abiding citizen(s) of this country, I am addressing you with all sincerity:\u00a0Huwag ho kayong matakot kung hindi ka terorista. Kung hindi ka naman sisirain mo ang gobyerno, pasabugin mo ang simbahan, pasabugin mo iyong<\/em>\u00a0public utilities. Well, just to derail\u00a0para matumba na tuloy ang bayan<\/em>\u00a0(Don\u2019t be afraid if you\u2019re not a terrorist, if you don\u2019t destroy the government, blow up churches or public utilities just to see the nation fall),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President recalled several bombings in the southern island of Mindanao where most terrorism activities occur.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs what happened in Mindanao and in other places, mostly in Mindanao,\u00a0ang ginagamit kasi nito nila, bomba. And ang bomba niyan lahat nasa simbahan may tama o may bukol<\/em>\u00a0(they use bombs. They would usually damage or destroy churches),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said terrorists who murder people give the government a pass to kill them.<\/p>\n

\u201c’If you do that to the people, if you kill them wantonly, then I will take it as a right to kill you.\u00a0Ano ba naman iyong problema ninyong<\/em>\u00a0(What is your problem that you) kill, kill, kill?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Duterte, he spent most of his days as President trying to \u201cconnect\u201d with terrorists so they could arrive at a peaceful solution but none of his plans worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are terrorists because we — I finally declared them to be one. Why? Because we — I spent most of my days as a President trying to figure out and connect with them on how we can arrive at a peaceful solution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte acknowledged that while there is always a time to be friendly, there is also a time to be firm.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did my very best to produce something for the country. But unfortunately, I would not be blaming anybody now unless they would start to blame me again so that I can also blame them.\u00a0Eh wala talagang nangyari<\/em>\u00a0(But nothing happened),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte also said he expected the law to be challenged before the Supreme Court but noted that it is a \u201cmuch needed legal weapon\u201d to fight terrorism in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cItong komunista<\/em>\u00a0(These communists), whatever be the fortune or misfortune of that law now, I’m sure it will be challenged before the Supreme Court.\u00a0Sana iyong mga<\/em>\u00a0(I hope for) the much-needed legal weapons that we need to fight terrorism,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte signed the law on July 3 to repeal the Human Security Act of 2007.<\/p>\n

Under the law, suspected terrorists can be detained up to 24 days without the filing of any charges.<\/p>\n

The law stated that acts intended to cause death or serious injury to any person, extensive damage to a government facility, and extensive interference with destruction to critical infrastructure are likewise considered as terror acts.<\/p>\n

It also states that individuals who either use weapons, explosives, and chemical weapons or release dangerous substances causing fire, floods, or explosions are considered terrorists.<\/p>\n

Several petitions have been filed against the anti-terrorism law before the high court.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 Law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear about the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 or Republic Act 11479 because it will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":260811,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260810","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260810","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260810"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260810\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":260812,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260810\/revisions\/260812"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260810"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260810"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260810"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}