Is PH safer from terror threat 20 years after 9/11?

Twenty years after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and commercial airline flights in the United States that killed 2,996 people, Filipinos join the rest of the world in reflecting on the continuing threats posed by terrorism.

In July last year, Congress passed Republic Act No. 11479, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 that replaced the Human Security Act of 2007. Thirty-seven petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court seeking to strike down this new law.

Chief concern is the removal of a previous safeguard against wrongful detention and the creation of the Anti-Terrorism Council that is perceived to pose a threat to human rights. Incidents of Red-tagging against human rights and activist groups, including well-known show business personalities apparently fueled the opposition to the new law.