Anti-subversion law revival will foment greater dissent
Given the propensity of Duterte and his military officers to accuse people of being communists or associated with the Communist Party of the Philippines, the revival of the anti-subversion law, as proposed by DILG Sec. Eduardo Año, will only result in military and police abuses and violations of democratic rights far worse than what we have already experienced in the past three years.
For more than fifty years (from the 1930s up to 1992), the anti-subversion law was used only to suppress the struggles of various democratic sectors. Thousands of activists among workers, students, peasants and other sectors were unjustly accused of being communist and incarcerated under the law.
In the end, however, the anti-subversion law proved inutile in stopping the growth of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and the revolutionary armed struggle, because it merely masks the basic issues of oppression and exploitation which impel thousands of people to join the Party and the revolutionary struggle.
If the anti-subversion law is revived, the Duterte government will only succeed in further rousing the people to resist his tyranny. It will only foment greater dissent.