ROXAS OUTLINES SECURITY PROPOSALS

Senator Mar Roxas called for the government to take up initiatives to provide much-needed stability to the nation amid conflict between various factions.

"Let us resume peace talks with the National Democratic Front without any conditions from both sides," Roxas said in his speech at the Kilosbayan-Bantay Katarungan Forum in Lyceum of the Philippines University , Intramuros, Manila .

"I urge the government to withdraw the condition attendant to a ceasefire, and the NDF to withdraw the condition attendant to the terrorist listing," he said. The unwillingness to back down from their positions has led to a years-long impasse in negotiations.

Second, Roxas reiterated the Senate's stand that their colleague Senator Antonio Trillanes be allowed to take his seat in the Senate, "without prejudice to his pending case."

Such a move, Roxas said, "would be a solid step to ease the restiveness among the soldiery, depoliticize the uniformed ranks and advance political stability."

The Senate has already voted to pass a resolution expressing the chamber's wish for the Makati court trying Senator Trillanes to give him permission to attend Senate hearings, sessions and other activities as a duly-elected official.

"Close to 12 million people voted him to office. Let us respect the voice of the people," Roxas said.

Aside from these urgent measures, Roxas is also proposing the creation of a 12-man congressional oversight committee on national security and intelligence affairs.

The committee shall check the system, shape policy and advise the President and Commander-In-Chief on matters involving:

• the appropriation and deployment of national security and intelligence resources;
• ideological and doctrinal issues as well as rules of engagement against the enemies of the state; and
• orders of battle drawn up by the Armed Forces of the Philippines .

The need for an oversight committee has become more pressing with the enactment of the "Human Security Act" by the administration. Such a law, which Roxas was against during deliberations in the Senate last year, "can end up terrorizing the citizens themselves, given our weak intelligence and law enforcement."

Roxas noted that the law allows authorities to pick people up without warrants, and that the privacy of people's bank accounts and communication systems can be invaded. "Because the threat of terrorism is being used as the reason for all of this, then there ought to be a security and intelligence oversight committee manned by the people's representatives in both chambers of Congress," he said.

He also said the committee would be more effective than the present National Security Council, "which is more like a debating club that is served only what the executive wants to present� Our proposal is to reinforce the stated commitment of President Arroyo to arrest the assault on civil liberties."

Roxas also said the government must establish command responsibility for the police and military over disappearances and killings in their respective jurisdictions.

"This is one way to arrest the perceptive emergence of a national security state that threatens to overwhelm our democratic traditions. The national security establishment is on a wayward path that will neither bring justice to the victims of murder nor finish off the communist insurgency anytime soon," he said.