The United Nations has urged the Philippines to enact an anti-terrorism law that would incorporate the country's commitments to various international conventions in fighting terror, the foreign affairs department said Tuesday. The U.N. had sent a team of security experts to Manila last week for a three-day mission to assist the Philippines in preparing anti-terrorism legislation. The team, headed by Alex Schmid, a senior officer with the terrorism prevention branch of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, conducted a workshop for Philippine officials on the need to enact an anti-terrorism law. "Terrorism is of vital national and international concern, which requires the immediate enactment of adequate laws in all countries," the U.N. delegation told the workshop. "While the Philippines has ratified all 12 universal anti-terrorism conventions, part of the actual incorporation of the resulting obligations still has to take place," it added. "One way to meet these obligations is to reflect these requirements fully in a new anti-terrorism act." The team also urged Filipino legislators to outlaw financing, planning, preparation of terrorist acts or supporting terrorists, recruitment of members of terrorist groups and supply of weapons" and other "preparatory acts". It stressed that a national anti-terrorism law could help strengthen international cooperation through the establishment of a central authority and legal provisions on mutual legal assistance as well as extradition. The foreign affairs department noted that there are currently about 10 proposed anti-terrorism bills in the Philippine Congress. The bills, however, have been hampered by strong opposition over controversial provisions allowing warrantless arrests, wire-tapping and detention without formal charges. The U.N. team noted that such abuses and violations could be avoided by using international conventions as guidelines in enacting the anti-terrorism law. "Not only is the U.N. interested in seeing that a Philippine law is passed in harmony with various related international conventions, but also that the rights of individuals as per the U.N.'s declarations on human rights and the Philippine constitution are safeguarded in the law," Schmid said. The U.N. delegation said the Philippines should tap U.N. resources in implementing the anti-terrorism law once it is enacted, including the training of relevant officials, primarily those involved in the criminal justice system.
