A Church-based human rights group criticized government moves to allow warrantless arrests and require citizens to declare their assets and liabilities as tantamount to the return of martial law.
"(The proposal) is an affront to our democratic gains and a presage to the dark days of our civil liberty," read a Feb. 17 statement of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP).
"This measure is a bid to counter political opposition and will victimize innocent civilians who have little means to defend themselves in court, much less defend themselves against sweeping persecution of police and military elements," said the statement, signed by Executive Director Aurora Parong.
TFDP records show that in the seven and a half months since President Joseph Estrada assumed office there have been 60 politically related arrests, but warrants had been issued for only six of them.
During a Feb. 15 briefing on the criminal justice system for the Senate justice and human rights committee, General Panfilo Lacson suggested redefining the conditions for a warrantless arrest and imposing a national identification (ID) system.
One of three instances in which Philippine rules of court allow a warrantless arrest is "when an offense has in fact been just committed, and the law enforcer making the arrest has personal knowledge of fact indicating that the person to be arrested has committed it."
According to Lacson, who heads the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF), the phrase "personal knowledge of fact indicating" should be amended to read "reasonable ground to believe."
He also said a national ID system would create a database of photographs, fingerprints and other information that could be used to pursue criminals.
"Even with its much-vaunted (PAOCTF) published reports on its successes or even the resumption of the death penalty law, the Estrada administration still feels it lacks the ´teeth´ in solving criminality," the TFDP statement said, noting Estrada´s support for Lacson´s proposal.
The TFDP, set up in 1974 by the Association of Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines, also questioned Lacson´s human rights record when he served in another anti-crime task force under then vice-president Estrada.
"Even Lacson and his men overstepped the bounds of the law a number of times costing the life of innocent civilians. Until now, nobody doubts the basis in fact of the ´Kuratong Baleleng´ rubout," the TFDP said.
After his appointment as PAOCTF director in 1998, Lacson and his men were cleared of killing 11 alleged members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang in a 1995 "shootout" that witnesses reported to be an arrest that turned into an extra-judicial execution.
In 1996 the Philippine bishops released a pastoral statement opposing an anti-terrorism bill with provisions including a national ID system to help control crime.
They cautioned against possible human rights violations if the bill were passed and instead called for effective implementation of existing laws.
Meanwhile, Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said that it is "unnecessary as it is burdensome" for private citizens to file statements of assets and liabilities.
In a Feb. 21 statement, the chairman of the Senate justice and human rights committee noted that if the government wanted to collect more taxes, it should enforce current tax laws and go after tax evaders.
Questioning Estrada´s threat to sue for libel and impose sanctions against two national dailies, Pimentel cited the 1986 "People Power" uprising that overthrew the late president Ferdinand Marcos after 22 years in power.
People power restored Filipinos´ "freedoms to think, speak and act differently from one another and, more critically, from the government within the bounds of the Constitution," he said.
Pimentel is the private lawyer for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, which continues to seek justice in the 1997 assassination of Oblate Bishop Benjamin de Jesus of Jolo.
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