(Bloomberg) -- Philippine lawmakers have approved a bill allowing warantless detention and wiretapping of suspected terrorists, which the country’s human rights commission says could curb expressions of dissent and other freedoms.
The House of Representatives approved the anti-terrorism bill on Tuesday. It can now be signed into law by President Rodrigo Duterte, who earlier described the measure as urgent. The legislation is needed as current policies lack “the teeth that is required given the current face of international terrorism,” Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said in an ABS-CBN interview Wednesday.
The bill’s broad definition of terrorism could result in possible abuses, Commission on Human Rights spokesperson Jacqueline Ann de Guia said. “With the vague and overly broad definition, authorities could wantonly tag exercise of rights as terrorist expressions,” she said.
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