Press Release
December 14, 2007

Villar: "No felt need, public clamor to resurrect entombed
anti-subversion law."

Senate President Manny Villar said there is no need to "resurrect from the dead" the "entombed" Anti-Subversion Law as current laws, such as the Human Security Act, already provide adequate protection to the State under siege.

"Reviving RA 1700 is retrogressive. It is like going back to the primitive years when we label people as 'communists' and 'insurgents.' It will be a throwback to the Jurassic era when mere membership in a group is ground for punishment when what should be sanctioned are overt illegal acts and not mere organizational affiliation."

Villar said there is "no felt need or public clamor" for the revival of Republic Act 1700, which was scrapped by Congress during the Ramos years.

If the said statute was repealed at a time when insurgent forces were "more numerous and more influential" than they are today, "then there is no reason to bring back to life a law against a group, which the government itself claims, is in near death."

Villar noted that the government is planning to re-introduce the Anti-Subversion Law to end insurgency in the country. It can be recalled that the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA peaked during the 1980s as expression of anti-Marcos sentiment, he added.

The Nacionalista Party President said "there is no study or survey which says that an anti-subversion law is needed to keep the peace that is needed to bring in investments or create jobs."

He warned that an "official proposal to revive the law would carry with it the tacit admission that we have a government that is constantly being subverted that it has to ask Congress for this kind of legislation."

"This will be contrary to the image the government is trying to project here and abroad, from investment pamphlets to tourism brochures, that ours is a peaceful land," Villar said.

"If it asks for an anti-subversion law, then government will just be blowing out of proportion the prevalence of what it may deem as subversive activities. Government is only creating an issue that can be used against them," he said

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