JAMBY FILES COMPLAINT VERSUS TERROR BILL IN GENEVA

Senator Jamby Madrigal today filed a strongly worded complaint against the recently approved Anti-Terror Bill or ATB before the United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights in Geneva.

In her letter to Professor Martin Scheinin Special Rapporteur on the Protection and Promotion of Human Rights while Countering Terrorism, the Senator described the ATB as a step back to the violation and atrocities committed during the dark years of martial rule in the Philippines.

Senator Madrigal has consistently labeled the ATB as martial law in disguise, and declared that the ATB is the most scheming and dangerous piece of legislation passed by the Philippine Congress as it rampages on constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech, freedom of communication and correspondence, among others.

The filing of the new complaint also comes after the release of the report made by Mr. Philip Alston the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings and Forced Disappearances who had just concluded a 10-day investigation on the spate of killings of human rights and political activists in the Philippines.

The Senator is seeking the immediate action of the UNHCHR to put a stop to the worsening human rights scenario in the country.