PNP worried with anti-terror law

By Ronron
March 13, 2007

The Philippine National Police (PNP) is “worried” with the recently passed anti-terrorism law because of the penalties that await erring law enforcers, its spokesman said Tuesday.

Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao, Jr. told reporters in Camp Crame that because of the P500,000-per-day fine that will be imposed against law enforcers who wrongly held a suspected terrorist, “they might opt not to operate anymore.”

“By being too careful, they could be stalled. That is the danger. Or, what is supposed to be preempted will explode already because of too much caution. That is the danger,” Pagdilao said in Filipino.

Section 50 of the Human Security Act of 2007, commonly known as the anti-terrorism bill, states that “upon acquittal, any person who is accused of terrorism shall be entitled to the payment of damages in the amount of P500,000 for every day that he or she has been detained or deprived of liberty or arrested without a warrant as a result of such accusation.”

The amount will come from the PNP or the Anti-Terrorism Council that caused the filing of charges, and shall be released within 15 days from the date of acquittal.

Saying that the amount is too much, Pagdilao “subscribed” to the recommendation of Anti-Terrorism Task Force Director for Legal, Public Information and Advocacy Ricardo Blancaflor of P20,000 a day and a cap of P2 million.

“That is what the PNP is looking at for possible amendment,” Pagdilao said.

Also, he complained that the three-day legal custody of a suspected terrorist, as stated in Section 18 of the law, is too short of a time to finish a substantial investigation.

“Maybe, we have to increase that number of days. Even in advanced countries, with their advanced technologies, advance equipment for their police, they have a longer period for custodial detention and investigation. In England, I understand, they have 30 days… Fifteen days would be sufficient. We’re just cutting into half what most countries are imposing as a standard,” Pagdilao said.

He said the three-day period may not actually be “enough teeth to fight terrorism.”

Nonetheless, since there is no stopping for the present version of the law to take effect come July 14, Pagdilao said the PNP is already preparing for it.

He disclosed that the 120,000-strong PNP is set to undergo “different stages” of training seminar “from different levels, involving commanders from the national headquarters” down to foot patrol officers.

“Chief PNP, Director General Oscar Calderon has ordered all PNP officers and men, starting from the highest level, including him, down to all regional directors, to our foot patrol officers, to study the law. So we are preparing our coordination with the UP Law Center, the Commission on Human Rights, and Integrated Bar of the Philippines so they can lecture us about the law to help our policemen,” Pagdilao said.

He said the training seminar starts this month until after the election on May 14.

Blancaflor has earlier stressed that the new law really needs a paradigm shift on the attitude and performance of law enforcers in the country since the safeguards were put in place to address concerns of civil libertarians that the law will be abused by the government, especially against those critical of the government.”/END