Homegrown terrorism

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The country has just passed an Anti-Terrorism Law that is supposed to protect the citizens and the state against the death and destruction that could be inflicted by people with warped minds who think nothing of eliminating peace-loving members of the human race in pursuit of their fanatical beliefs.

While some sectors with their own agendas made howls of protest against the new law, it was generally welcomed by those who have seen and realized what dangers the presence of terrorists in the country could pose.

In adopting such a law, the Philippines was trying to keep in step with other countries that had already experienced the results of terroristic activities wrought on them by those who seem bent on proving their power and seeming impunity after committing vicious acts. We have seen what have happened to the United States, to Spain, to Indonesia, even Japan, and in the Middle East. We know how terrorists had almost penetrated their evil plans right here in our country when no less than the Holy Father, the beloved Pope John Paul II was visiting us.

To preempt, or avoid such terrible happenings was the reason why this administration prodded so relentlessly for the passage of such law. But it is not only terrorists of the Al Qaida or Osama Bin Laden type that we have to look out for. In our own towns and cities, we may be harboring creatures who are terrorists at heart and who have no qualms about harming or even killing their fellow Filipino. They may pop up in the banks, in passenger vehicles, in aircrafts, in markets, terminals, and, as we saw two days ago, right in the Hall of Justice, the building housing the courts of the city of Taguig. There, someone with a terrorist mentality, hostaged four persons, and kept them covered with a gun and grenades he had smuggled into the courtroom.

For this kind of terrorist, we obviously are not prepared. Despite security measures being implemented, Wednesday's bloody incident still took place in a Hall of Justice.

Do we also need to pass another law that will concentrate on terrorists like this?*