Filipino helpers take to the streets in terror law protest

More than 800 Filipinos working in Hong Kong yesterday marched in Central to denounce a new anti-terror law in the Philippines, saying that it would lead to political persecution and worsen the human rights conditions.

The rally was held to mark the 35th anniversary this month of the declaration of martial law by former president Ferdinand Marcos.

The marchers, nearly all of them domestic helpers, carried numbered placards to commemorate more than 800 people who disappeared under Marcos' military rule in the 1970s and 1980s.

'Never again. Never again for martial law. We want justice for the people. Stop political persecution,' the activists shouted as they marched from Chater Garden in Central to Harcourt Garden, next to the Philippine consulate.

They said a new anti-terror law, pushed through by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's government in July, could allow for unexplained arrests and arbitrary killing of dissenters, similar to those during the Marcos martial law era.

The law, aimed mainly at tackling militants in the southern Philippines, allows authorities to detain suspects without warrants, and provides for up to 40 years in jail. Electronic surveillance is allowed with court approval. Critics challenging the law in the Supreme Court argued that its broad definition of terrorism could turn the country into a police state.