FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 1, 2021
Contact: Rhonda Ramiro, chair@bayanusa.org,
Nikole Cababa, secgen@bayanusa.org
Across the country, the member organizations of BAYAN USA continue our call to junk the Anti-Terrrorism Act of 2020, which will face oral arguments in the Philippine Supreme Court starting February 2nd. The Act, commonly referred to as the Anti-Terror Law (ATL), has elicited the most widespread formal opposition in the history of the Supreme Court, with 37 petitions filed against it by indigenous peoples, journalists, church people, environmentalists, academics, lawyers, and human rights defenders. This broad resistance is paralleled by the widespread clamor on the streets mounted across classes and sectors of society.
Signed into law by Duterte in July of 2020, the ATL provides a legal cover to the already fascist regime, which had been terror-tagging, harassing, arresting, and murdering activists and ordinary people in cold blood long before the law’s passage. With the ATL in place, however, the regime is even more emboldened to go after mass leaders and people’s organizations both in the Philippines and abroad that challenge Duterte’s iron-fisted rule. The recent unilateral abrogation of the UP-DND Accord; shoot-to-kill order against Cordillera People’s Alliance chair, Windel Bolinget; and trumped up charges filed against Boyette Jurcales, Jr., the director of BAYAN Philippines’ Popular Struggles Commission are just the most recent examples of the Duterte regime’s frenzy to silence dissent and cement dictatorial rule.
February marks the beginning of Philippine Solidarity Month, commemorating the anti-imperialist solidarity demonstrated from people in the US when the Philippine-American War broke out in 1898. Today, the Filipino people are once again at war against a fascist dictator backed with funding from our very own US government. With renewed mass attention now on the ATL, we call on all Filipinos and supporters of human rights in the Philippines to join forces to reinvigorate and broaden the mass movement against Duterte’s fascism in all forms. Write statements, lobby your representatives, use our Facebook frame to raise mass awareness, and join us on the streets to show that the international community is watching and ready to take action.
Together, we must defeat Duterte’s Anti-Terror Law as a crucial step in our fight to oust this fascist president, and in our struggle for a Philippines that will protect the democratic rights and right to self-determination for the people.
Defeat Duterte’s Anti-Terror Law!
Oust Duterte Now!