Press Release
December 14, 2007

Licking poverty, not Anti-Subversion Law, would solve insurgency -- Loren

Senator Loren Legarda said yesterday that reducing if not eliminating grinding poverty is the ultimate solution to the country's drawn-out insurgency problem, not the return of the Anti-Subversion Law.

Legarda stressed that instead of instituting police-state and iron-hand measures, the government should focus on providing more livelihood opportunities to poor Filipinos.

"The Anti-Subversion Law had been abused and had been rightfully repealed under the Aquino administration. Let us not resurrect this monstrous law since it will just worsen the insurgency problem," she said.

The senator warned that reenacting an Anti-Subversion law, which would make a crime mere memberships to ideological organizations like the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), would shut the door close on those who are seeking societal change through peaceful avenues.

"An Anti-Subversion Law would just force people organizations to go underground. It would further swell the ranks of those who see armed struggle as the only remaining option to effect change," Legarda said.

She said such a law would make no differentiation between combatants and those who are merely espousing ideologies that may not sit well with the government.

"Such a law has no place in a democracy. It can lead to draconian, inquisition-type actions by the government," she said.

As it is, Legarda said the big number of political killings and disappearances in the country is already a big cause for concern.

In the aftermath of the Manila Peninsula siege last month, Legarda noted growing public perception that the country may be heading towards martial law rule.

She cited the "illegal" imposition of a night-long curfew and the arrest of journalists who covered the standoff between the police and military and a group headed by detained Sen. Antonio Trillanes.

"The perception is that the government is trying to determine how far the people will allow state transgression on their civil liberties," she said.

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