Celebrity couple Anne Curtis and Erwan Heussaff took to social media to share their thoughts on the controversial Anti-Terrorism Bill. The bill now only needs the signature of President Rodrigo Duterte for it to become a law after 173 lawmakers in the House of Representative voted its passage.
On her Twitter account, Anne said that the bill is too “broad” and that it could remove one’s right to freedom of speech.
“From my understanding, it's quite broad and vague. Leaving room for different interpretations which could potentially take away each person's basic rights of freedom of speech and acts of even peaceful protests. That is my understanding of it. I ask you to read the bill yourself. Take your stand and use your voice to express how you feel,” she stated.
https://t.co/7vaE77TOlf #JunkTerrorBill pic.twitter.com/uuKDv61sgb
— Anne Curtis-Smith (@annecurtissmith) June 4, 2020
Meanwhile, Erwan echoed the concern of his wife about the bill’s vagueness and remarked that the “fairness of the bill will depend on how it’s interpreted and implemented” and that “words can be bent to fit a narrative.”
READ: Anne Curtis shares touching moment between husband Erwan Heussaff and daughter Dahlia
He stated, “The premise is strong, I mean aren't we all against terrorism? However, like any lengthy legal document things start to get muddled through the beauty of words. By the end of it, I was asking myself: who can decide that someone is a suspected terrorist? More importantly, who gets to define that a certain action can be defined as terrorism or the threat to commit it? If we feel like we need to replace the Human Security Act, why can't more time be spent refining the vagaries found in the document and correcting some of it's confusing language?”
He added, “Doesn't the country have more important issues to tackle? Public Transportation, Public Health, Food Security, etc.”
In a letter to House Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano on Monday, June 1, President Duterte certified the bill as urgent, which aims to amend the Human Security Act of 2007.