RP can fight terrorism even without terror act, Pimentel admits

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Q. Pimentel, Jr. Wednesday said law enforcement officers should not be faulted if they use laws other than the Human Security Act (HSA) to go after terrorists due to difficulties in interpreting and applying the country's version of the anti-terrorism law.

Pimentel said the HSA (Republic Act 9372) does not even define what terrorism is. He said the HSA merely makes it illegal for persons to commit six offenses already punished under the Revised Penal Code and six other crimes already penalized under special laws and martial law decrees "if done to sow panic in the community."

He was reacting to the statement of Cebu Rep. Pablo Garcia, chairman of the House Committee on Revision of Laws, that the HSA is a "paper tiger" and virtually useless in cracking down on terror threats.

Garcia also claimed that law enforcers are better off relying on other laws such as the anti-money laundering and anti-wiretapping laws in fighting and prosecuting terror suspects.

"To some extent, Pabling Garcia is right. From the beginning of the debates in the Senate, I had already pointed out that since the offenses punishable under the Human Security Act are already penalized under the Revised Penal Code and other special laws, there was no need to punish them again under the country's version of the anti-terrorism law, the HSA," Pimentel said.

Pimentel said he pointed this out to fellow senators led by Juan Ponce Enrile, principal sponsor of the HSA, but they did not listen to him.

What they did, he said, was to jack up the penalties for the offenses, but this could have been done without enacting an anti-terrorism law.

Pimentel said that any person who will commit any of the aforecited offenses will be held liable under the HSA for terrorism if it results in the "sowing or creation of a condition of widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace, in order to coerce the government to give in to an unlawful demand."

Such terrorist acts are punishable with 40 years of imprisonment without the benefit of parole.

The HSA also provides that persons who conspire to commit the crime of terrorism shall suffer the penalty of 40 years of imprisonment. There is conspiracy when two or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of the crime of terrorism.

During the deliberations on the HSA, Pimentel said he had proposed that a foreign terrorist would incur the full measure of the penalty provided in the measure if he acted alone or in concert with a Filipino or other terrorists.

But he argued if a Filipino terrorist acted alone or even in conspiracy with other Filipinos, he or she should be punished with the penalties provided for under the Revised Penal Code or the appropriate special laws.

"It is my view that punishing a Filipino with the grave penalties that the HSA provides for terrorist crimes that are in fact already punished under the Revised Penal Code with less severity is uncalled for, unnecessary and unwise," Pimentel said.