Press Release
May 11, 2009

Revival of Anti-Subversion Law won't solve insurgency -- Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today said the proposal of newly-installed party-list Rep. Jovito Palparan to resurrect the Anti-Subversion Law is a retrogressive move that will only alienate cause-oriented or progressive groups and will not solve communist insurgency in the country.

"The proposal of Congressman Palparan to revive the Anti-Subversion Law is reflective of his antediluvian mentality towards law and order in a modern democratic society," he said.

Pimentel said the proposal, if adopted, will bring back a McCarthyst-like era when any person can be persecuted and treated as an enemy of the state by mere membership in any legal organizations that espouses leftist or Marxist ideology.

"The Anti-Subversion Law made guilt by association a principle of criminal law. It is not surprising that he is now attempting to revive the law. His record as a general in the field of human rights speaks of the kind of attitude he has towards those who have a different view of governance even if they do not bear up arms in rebellion," he said.

The minority leader also warned that Palparan's proposal will mean that the government will have to close the door to members of progressive organizations who wish to pursue their struggle for social justice, economic opportunities and human rights through legal or parliamentary means. Consequently, he said this will force them to go underground or flee to the mountains and to take up arms against the government.

He said the ultimate effect of reviving the unpopular, but already dead law will be to aggravate civil strife and disunity among Filipinos.

"In a word, the general-turned-congressman poses a clear and present danger to the civil liberties of the people," Pimentel said.

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