Jesus M Elbinias
THE Senate, House of Representatives, the Judiciary, and the Presidency are all components of our country’s democracy with governance together with and over the citizenry. Our democratic state can only survive if there is unity with one and all others of those components. For members of the Senate or those of the House, for that matter, to launch on President Arroyo’s 59th birthday a nationwide campaign to force her out of office is unseemly. It is clear that their campaign is directed to the people to overthrow the President not through a proper legal means such as by impeachment charges to be initiated by the people through their representatives. Campaigning to people all over the country to force the President to step out of her office is tantamount to a form of sedition.
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Could the Anti-terror Bill providing penalties for allegedly inciting and facilitating terrorism or failure to disclose acts of alleged terrorism to cause the militant groups fear that the political opposition and foes of the administration would be cracked down on by training the law on those who express their dissent against the administration instead of to the terrorists and subject them to the penalties of the law? The enforcing authorities of the anti-terror law should not focus only on this country’s political dissenters, instead they should respond to massive threats of terrorism. As Alan M. Dershowitz, a 38-year professor at Harvard Law School said in his book, "Why Terrorism works": "Some of the more moderate emergency measures we could realistically expect, if suicide squads began to operate in the cities and towns of this country, these measures may include:
* Substantial restrictions on immigration and on the rights of aliens, especially from certain parts of the world.
* The Instituting of mandatory internal passports or some other form of identification papers to be carried by all individuals in the United States (Philippines here).
* NBI infiltration of political organizations sympathetic to terrorist goals.
* Extensive wiretapping, bugging, and surveillance of suspected terrorists and their associates.
* Detention of suspected terrorists.
* Governmental controls over the dissemination of information about terrorist activities.
* Increased security checks, roadblocks, and searches near theaters, restaurants, and other public gathering places.
Author Dershowitz also writes that "the restriction imposed on civil liberties, though controversial, are generally consistent with the rule of law. But what if matters were to get considerably worse? What if bioterrorism were to expand from sporadic outbreaks of anthrax to systemic spreading of lethal diseases? What if a nuclear or chemical explosion seemed imminent? What if suicide bombers began to blow up our schools, shopping centers, restaurants, and government buildings?
"One of the first responses might well be to exercise far greater control over the movement of potentially dangerous people into, out of, and within our country. Already we are hearing calls of massive restrictions of immigration and on visas, especially for some people....In the pages to come I will outline some steps we should consider taking in order to improve our security without losing either the feel or the reality of freedom."
NOTE: I will include in my future column some excerpts of what he has written in the pages to come after the above in his said book. Those who would want to analyze the Anti-terror Bill crafted by our Congress may review its provision to see whether what author Alan M. Dershowitz wrote about how "the world must never yield to suicide bombing as a new diplomatic tool," Perhaps the readers can offer suggestions to Congress on possible amendment of the bill, if necessary.
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