MANILA, Philippines — Senator Panfilo Lacson on Friday rebuked the American lawmakers who urged the Philippine government to repeal the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and said they should “shut up unless they admit to being a bunch of hypocrites.”“I wonder how many among those 50 or so members of the US Congress voted in favor of their own country’s Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001,” Lacson , a former Philippine National Police chief, said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENTHe argued that unlike the US’ anti-terror law, the Philippines’ version does not provide for a “Guantánamo Bay-like detention facility” where he said “indefinite detention without trial of suspected terrorists, on top of torture and breach of human rights, suicides and suicide attempts have been reported by Amnesty International.”Lacson further pointed out that unlike the law passed by US Congress, the Philippines’ anti-terror law does not allow “one-party consent in the conduct of electronic or technical surveillance.”“While our Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is replete with safeguards to ensure that human rights of suspected terrorists are observed and protected, what the US Congress passed as their version of an Anti-Terrorism law is much stronger, even cruel to some extent because their policy makers and citizenry give the highest premium to the security of their country and the protection of US citizens stationed anywhere in the world,” Lacson added.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer July 17, 2020 00:22 UTC