PIMENTEL CALLS FOR THE DEFERMENT OF
APPROVAL OF ANTI-TERRORISM BILL

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Nene Q. Pimentel, Jr. (PDP-Laban) today urged the Senate to defer the approval of the Anti-Terrorism Bill (Senate Bill 2137) until after the election period this year.

Pimentel said the success of the governments counter-terrorism campaign, which has elicited praises from United States President George W. Bush and other world leaders, makes the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Bill less urgent.

The world has proclaimed the anti-terrorism campaign of the government as a tremendous success. The success of the government in that direction has been achieved even in the absence of an anti-terrorism law, he said.

In Senate Resolution 615, Pimentel pointed out that the election period covering the 2007 elections is about to begin that would culminate on the election day in May and, thereafter, several weeks more that cover the usually hotly-contested counting.

He said that the heat of the election campaign has often ended in violent incidents.

It is easy to see that people in power or unscrupulous individuals could conceivably use the anti-terror legislation as a tool to browbeat their electoral opponents, Pimentel said.

Prudence dictates that the Senate should not allow them to have the opportunity to use the anti-terror legislation for purposes other than for which it is being crafted.