(Eagle News)–Senator Panfilo Lacson has submitted for plenary debates a bill that aims to increase the number of days a terror suspect can be held by authorities without charges.
Senate Bill No. 1083, which aims to amend the Human Security Act, seeks to allow the detention of a terror suspect who has not been charged for a maximum of 14 days, 11 days more than the allowed three days under the existing law.
Under the bill, the terror suspect can also be held for 60 to 90 days if authority from the court is secured.
The bill also aims to remove from the existing law the P500,000 fine for each day of wrongful detention of a terror suspect.
The police and the military shall also be given the power to petition the court to order telco providers to disclose calls, texts or online messages made by a terror suspect.
In pushing for the bill, Lacson noted that it was only in the Philippines “where the anti-terror law has literally more provisions restricting our law enforcers than bringing terrorists to justice.”
“That is not an exaggeration,” he said, noting that since the Human Security Act was enacted in 2007, only one person, the alleged recruiter of Maute terrorists behind the Marawi siege in 2017, was jailed for terrorism.
“Our country needs an anti-terror law that would provide a strong legal backbone to support our criminal justice response to terrorism, enable our law enforcers the much-needed tools to protect our people from the threat of terrorism, and at the same time, safeguard the rights of those accused of the crime,” Lacson added. Meanne Corvera
