MANILA, Philippines – Binibining Pilipinas titleholder Patch Magtanong, a lawyer, took to Instagram on Thursday, June 4, to raise her concerns about the anti-terror bill that's up for President Rodrigo Duterte's signature.
The bill was approved on 3rd and final reading by the House of Representatives on June 3, and by the Senate even earlier. While the bill intends to prevent terrorist acts, human rights advocates and lawyers say it could easily be abused by the state and used to silence dissenters.
Among those lawyers is Patch, who in her Instagram stories pointed out parts of the bill that are a cause for concern.
She highlighted parts from Section 4 of the bill, particularly the one that states terrorism "shall not include advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights, which are not intended to cause death or serious physical harm to a person, to endanger a person's life, or to create a serious risk to public safety."
Patch said that while the first part of that definition excludes activism from being counted as terrorism, the second part makes it prone to state abuse.
"This means that all the information needs to allege is the existence of any of those conditions and it will fall under terrorism. The state just needs to allege intent," Patch said. "This is where the abuse might come from."
Patch also responded to people who say that celebrities and beauty queens are misinformed and have not read the bill. She said, "Tama naman (that's true)! To be completely informed we should all take time to read the bill."
She then shared a link to the bill, making note of "pertinent sections."
Patch also compiled "some of the unconstitutional/ contentious/ 'Draconian' provisions" of the bill. She pointed out the "vague definition" of terrorism and how that makes it open to abuse, and also questioned the timing of its passage and its certification as urgent.
"One night debates, no perfecting amendments, no bicameral conference committee. Terrorism already legislated in the RPC and Human Security Act, why was this bill certified as urgent?" she said, before listing down other questionable provisions.
Patch was sworn in as a lawyer in June 2019. She graduated with a law degree from the University of the Philippines, where she also earned her bachelor's degree in business economics.
Days before taking her oath as lawyer, she was crowned Binibining Pilipinas International, and went on to represent the country in the pageant's international round in Japan. – Rappler.com
