Madhuresh Kumar
The Corona Pandemic and subsequent lockdown in Philippines have been used by the President Duterte to push for passage of Anti Terrorism Bill[1], an amendment to the Human Security Act 2007. The Bill was approved by the Senate on February 26, 2020 and later by the House of Representative on June 3, 2020 and is now waiting the approval from the President. The Bill has been criticized by Leni Robredo, country’s Vice-President, civil society activists, national human rights commission, Human Rights Watch, UN office of Human Rights Commission and many others. The Bill provides overarching definition of terrorists, terror activities, bestows overarching surveillance power, arrest without warrant, detention, long incarceration without judicial appeal and takes away the power of judicial proceedings and hands it over to an executive body. This has raised widespread fears amongst the civil society, opposition leaders, media, human rights activists and raised concerns of its arbitrary use and abuse. This is comparable to the recent amendments brought by the NDA government to the terror laws. However, this current legislation is in line with similar measures undertaken by President Duterte, in the name of fighting the war on drug, since he came to power after a massive mandate in June 2016.
The passage of the Bill comes in the backdrop of the rising attack on the media and recent arbitrary shutdown of the ABS-CBN, the country’s largest and widest-reaching network by National Telecommunications Commission and conviction of Rappler executive editor Maria Ressa and on their former staffer Reynaldo Santos Jr over cyber libel charges, for an article written in 2012. There are seven other charges pending over Maria Ressa and possibility of their trial under the new Anti Terrorism Law can’t be ruled out.
Activism is not Terrorism
“Activism is not Terrorism” has been the main slogan of the civil society opposing this. Defying the current “Community Quarantine” in order due to Covid crisis, thousands of students, activists, and civil society groups took to streets opposing this draconian law. Students have been arrested, attacked and chased by security forces on university campuses, something similar to what happened in Jamia or JNU here. The community quarantine or lockdown measures started in mid March and continue even now with the unlock phase starting from June 1. However, the cases have only continued to rise, now at 25,000 and have caused massive hardships to the people. With the quarantine and shutting down of the public transport in Manila and other cities lakhs of workers were stranded and were unable to reach to their places of work or homes. Something similar to migrant workers crisis we witnessed here. The complete unpreparedness to provision for health crisis and now ensuing economic crisis has only meant that millions of the Filipinos continue to face lack of food and work.
However, the government has used this time now to bring the Anti Terrorism Bill, in a clear attempt to intimidate the civil society and curb any resistance. The fragmented opposition has been critical of it and sees this as an attempt to divert attention from the ongoing crisis and prepare for the next stage of wars and campaigns which has been the hallmark of the President Duterte’s term. The response to the critiques of the Bill has been that only those who support terrorism and support terrorist are fearing this and others have nothing to worry.
Sounds familiar right, the propaganda machinery backed by social media influencers, right wing news channels, fake news industry all have come together to create an atmosphere of support for these measures. Criminalise and deligtamise any one dissenting with the highly popular, nationalistic and strongman Duterte.
War on Drugs
The term of the President Duterte has been fraught with controversies around his stated war on drug campaigns, giving free hand to security forces leading to an estimated 30,000 deaths, many not involved in drug trafficking, the worst affected have been the poor and those on the margins. The UN Human Rights Office has also documented that, between 2015 and 2019, at least 248 human rights defenders, legal professionals, journalists and trade unionists have been killed in relation to their work. The phenomenon of “red-tagging” – labelling individuals or groups (including human rights defenders and NGOs) as communists or terrorists – has posed a serious threat to civil society and freedom of expression. The report notes how in some cases those who have been red-tagged were subsequently killed. Death threats or sexually-charged comments in private messages or on social media is extremely common for dissenting voices.[2] A culture, of course, being promoted and protected by the current regime.
It is very difficult to miss the similarity between Duterte and Modi. He came to power on a rhetoric erringly similar to our own PM with slogans like ‘change is coming’, standing against the ruling corrupt oligarchy which has ruled the country since 1986, someone not from main Manila but from most backward state of Mindanao, where he was Governor for long and has been credited for transforming it, (just like Gujarat model), his coarse and rustic language, emphasis on humble beginnings and an ability to connect with the masses. He has developed an unique way of communicating, especially evident when he pauses and utters his signature, “Papatayin kita,” or “I will kill you,” as in “If you destroy the youth of my country by giving them drugs, I will kill you.”
President Duterte remains highly popular even though he has faced international rebuke and condemnation for excesses committed during the war on drugs. Philippines has formally withdrawn from the International Criminal Court because a case was filed against the President for crimes against humanity. In the past, former President’s after demitting office in Philippines have faced jail terms and been put on trial and that’s why systematically, the effort has been to undermine every institutions and attempts are being made to change the Constitution, introduce a federal system instead of the current Presidential style of government. Currently, there is a limitation of single term of 6 years for the President, but in most likely his daughter, Sara Duterte, Governor of Davao, will be a front runner for the office. Something, which might shield him from further investigation post office.
The massive civil society opposition and international condemnation somehow has failed to dent his popularity and grip over the politics. Nothing seems to stick to him, even though he was not running for office in last year’s election for Senate seats but clean sweep by his coalition Hugpong ng Pagbabago meant that opposition won no seats. This came as politics- as-usual even in the background of the worst inflation in nearly a decade, kowtowing to China, credible charges of hidden wealth, a penchant for misogynistic comments, a provocative anti-clerical attitude in an overwhelmingly Catholic country, intimidating the press, imprisoning or ousting from office vocal opponents, and, perhaps, most seriously, over 30,000 deaths, a large number owing to extra-judicial executions, in his war on drugs. Nothing explains this, the same way as nothing explains the overwhelming majority of the NDA in 2019 elections happened at the same time in the month of May.
Vilification of Philippines Civil Society
Like India, Philipines has a big and influential civil society, with deep roots in democratic traditions, has a long history of guerrilla insurgency and the peasants movement against the exploitation of the oligarchy in 1960, birth of democratic and rights organisations following the 1972 Martial Law and Marcos dictatorship and then rise of constitutionalism following people power revolution in 1986 and Constitution of 1987 and then from the 1990s onwards rights based and issue specific NGOs. In addition, there is a vibrant climate justice movement, women’s movement, citizenship initiatives, farmers and peasants organisations, trade unions and so on. A 10 million strong diaspora is spread all over the world and has a huge influence over the society and politics both in the country. In the current times, the diaspora has played an active role and there has been controversy around the citizenship laws too.
The nationalistic jingoism promoted by current regime has ensured that the society remains divided and has touched the daily fabric of the politics. President Duterte remains a divisive figure in Philippines as PM Modi is in India, both having built an image of the strongmen and their brand of popular politics. His authoritarian tendencies has a complete grip but at the same time also has a ‘democratic’ acceptance, something born out of the disgust from the past regimes, which were marred in corruption, nepotism and cronyism. The usual machinations of the BJP regime we witness in the country is employed by the Duterte to blame the opposition and creation of an enemy in Christian clergy, Muslims, communist guerrillas and drug mafia.
The vilification, arrest and detention of the current Senator, and former Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission and Justice Minister Leila de Lima on charges of collaborating with the drug mafia has not only been far fetched but also showcases the gross abuse of power for framing opposition leaders under fabricated charges. She is highly popular, participating in Senate proceedings from the jail, writing and influencing opinions but has remained in jail for nearly three years now. False charges of being drug mafia, based on testimony of drug traffickers, she acted on during her term as Justice Minister, police officials and others have not stood judicial scrutiny, but still Courts have failed to provide relief, something similar to lawmakers in detention in Kashmir. She has now been denied visitation rights for more than a month on account of ongoing quarantine measures, just like the Bhima Koregaon accused rights activists.
Philippines, a country of more than 7,500 islands and 100 million population in the Pacific ocean is of extreme geo-political importance next to China, Japan, Australia and US. A former colony of Spain for 300 years and then under occupation of USA in first half of twentieth century until Second World War, it has remained a close ally of US for a long time. India and Philippines both stand at a similar juncture in their history, rise of right wing popular government veering towards authoritarian regime and posing enormous challenges for the movements in both the countries and future of democracy everywhere.
Need for Unified Struggle
One of the foremost thinkers and former Member of Parliament Walden Bello, however, says his regime shouldn’t be called ‘popular’ but it should be termed as counter revolutionary and something which is different from the regimes like those of Victor Orban in Austria or other such strongmen in the North. He says that the situation demands our aggressive defense of human rights, due process, and democratic rights that are under assault. But one cannot just be defensive, there must be an alternative to counter the seductive simplistic and dangerous visions of the far right. The opposition leader and jailed Senator Leila de Lima says that the liberal democracy has failed to live up to its promises for the masses and that disillusionment has given rise to these strongmen but unfortunately, any credible alternative is yet to be born and until then our efforts must continue to find an antidote to these dangerous people. We will be making a big mistake if their continuance in power is reduced to the fact that people are manipulated and or brainwashed or terrorized.
Notes
[1] # Anti Terrorism Bill 2020 http://www.congress.gov.ph/legisdocs/basic_18/HB00551.pdf
[2] Philippines: UN report details widespread human rights violations and persistent impunityhttps://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=25924
[Madhuresh Kumar is with National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) and Resistance Studies Fellow, University of Massachusetts Amherst.]
