Indigenous peoples are the ones that are hardest hit by the Anti-Terrorism Law, and the state is using the law as a "cover" to pursue its own agenda.
This was what lawyer Mai Taqueban of the Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center (LRC) said during her talk at the "LIVING UNDER THREAT: Responding to the Collective Impacts of Increasing Violence Against and Criminalization of Indigenous Peoples" event held on Monday evening.
Taqueban called her talk "Weaponizing the Law," and said that the administration has used "war framing" to further its security agenda, such as the war on drugs.
However, Taqueban said that the government's act of weaponizing the law is confusing because it puts in a bad light freedom of speech and assertion of rights. "It is in many ways criminalizing dissent," she said.
The lawyer cited the human barricade that was made by the indigenous peoples in Kasibu, Nueva Vizcaya back in April against the Australian-Canadian mining firm, OceanaGold.
The group complained that OceanaGold has no legal authority to conduct business in their area. However, the police still targeted the indigenous peoples.
"What was charged of them is the breach of quarantine guidelines," said Taqueban. "They were penalized, their leaders taken to prison." In that instance, Taqueban said the police weaponized the law and used the quarantine guidelines as the reason for their arrest.
Taqueban also lamented on the red-tagging incidents in the Philippines, which brands activists as terrorists.
Despite these human rights violations, Taqueban said there is still "hope" among Filipinos because there is now a "raging consciousness against the anti-terror law."