By BERNIE CAHILES-MAGKILAT Business groups voiced their opposition in the “strongest possible terms” to the enactment of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 stressing the government should focus on fighting COVID-19, help businesses and ordinary Filipinos survive the crisis rather than causing divisions. The House of Representatives recently approved House Bill 6875on third and final reading, and a similar bill approved by the Senate (Senate Bill 1083) last February. “We strongly urge our national leaders and the private sector to be focused fully at this time on what really matters; developing policies that will address multiple socio-economic shocks resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, strengthening our health systems, improving the investment climate to create more jobs especially given many thousands of returning OFWs. These are what our country needs to pull us out of our crisis and get back on our feet,” a joint statement signed by 8 organizations led by the Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development. The groups said they fully appreciate the need for peace and security in building a stronger nation but also stressed that current threats to national security are well addressed by existing laws and policies, and as such do not require urgent new legislation. They also said the “Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 is highly divisive” - because it poses clear and present danger to human rights enshrined in our Constitution – “at a time when our nation needs to come together as one.” In these trying times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the groups urged for national unity. “We are all suffering and fighting for survival: businesses are closing down, people are losing their jobs, those who still have jobs find it impossible to find safe transportation to work, our children are going hungry and the continuity of their education is under threat. We need to come together, united around a set of relief and recovery measures that will help us come out of this pandemic a stronger and more resilient nation,” the statement concluded. Other signatories to the joint position are Information Technology and Business Process Association of the Philippines (IBPAP), Investment House Association of the Philippines (IHAP), Judicial Reform Initiative (JRI), Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), Makati Business Club (MBC), Philippine Business for Education (PBEd) and Subdivision and Housing Developers Association, Inc. (SHDA).