Bagong Alyansang Makabayan condemns the enforcement of so-called anti-terror laws designed to suppress dissent, instill fear in communities, and legalize nothing less than state terrorism.
Since its enactment in 2020, the Anti-Terrorism Act has enabled the US-Duterte and US-Marcos regimes to weaponize the judicial process to target critics, social activists, human rights defenders, revolutionary leaders, and opposition groups. Authorities also used the Terrorist Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 to criminalize development activism, solidarity with the exploited and oppressed, and even humanitarian work.
According to Karapatan, a total of 227 individuals have been unjustly designated or charged with violations of ATA and TFPSA as of July 2025.
The majority of those charged under these draconian laws were activists and leaders of grassroots communities in the frontlines of resistance against large-scale projects destructive of the environment and disruptive of the lives and livelihoods of affected communities, as well as a slew of anti-people policies and programs.
Bayan leaders have been unjustly designated as “terrorists,” such as Windel Bolinget, Steve Tauli, Sarah Alikes, and Jennifer Awingan of the Cordillera People’s Alliance. We stand by these leaders of people’s organizations who have devoted their entire lives to educating and mobilizing the people to defy tyranny and serve the communities in the Cordillera region. We denounce the repressive actions of the Anti-Terrorism Council and the recent dismissal of the court petition filed by CPA leaders in Baguio questioning the terrorism designation.
As we call for the repeal of terror laws and condemn the atrocities committed by the US-Duterte and US-Marcos regimes, we also demand accountability from global institutions like the United Nations since its Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy has become the playbook for authoritarian leaders in justifying their brutal antidemocratic policies. The Philippine experience has shown that the counter-terrorism strategy became the basis to unleash political persecution, lawfare, red-tagging, the filing of trumped-up terror cases, and flagrant human rights violations. The standards imposed by the Financial Action Task Force were also invoked by Philippine officials in waging a crackdown on development NGOs, civil society organizations, and activists under the pretext of countering terrorism.
The real terrorists are those who deploy the state machinery to pacify discontent and violently prevent the people from opposing projects that destroy the environment and displace villagers from their homes. The terrorists engaged in money laundering are not activists but corrupt officials and their campaign donors who steal with impunity.
Bayan calls for protests to amplify the demand for the urgent repeal of terror laws. State terrorism will be among the main issues to be raised during the people’s state of the nation address on July 27. We hold the US-Marcos regime accountable for the grave human rights violations and the use of terror laws aimed at undermining the people’s resistance against imperialist domination, widespread and entrenched corruption by political dynasties and the comprador oligarchy, and big landlord oppression in the rural areas.
Let us defeat US-backed state terrorism by carrying forward the struggle for national freedom and democracy.