CYBERCRIME LAW

With so much clamor to amend the Cybercrime Law, the public particularly the social media user expressed their disappointment to the government by holding rallies on the street as a sign of their protest in the said law. Some are doing it online by changing their Facebook profile into black color showing their disagreement to the government. And in view of this, a T V forum with the topic on Cybercrime Law was aired recently on PTV channel 4 where representatives from the different sectors of our society were present … both those who favored the Cybercrime Law and those who do not. 

In the course of the discussion, several topics were tackled such as the penalty for online libel, blocking a particular site without an order from the court, hacking a website particularly those that belongs to the government, child pornography, freedom of expression, etc.    

With regard to the penalty for online libel, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Justice; Mr. Geronimo Sy pointed out that the penalty for online libel is eight (8) years and not what others thought to be that it’s six (6) years minimum to ten (10) years maximum … a degree higher if its committed online compared if its committed in the real world. Furthermore, Mr. Sy clarified that once you had been sued for online libel, no other form of libel can be charge against you. In other words, you cannot be sued for libel for two counts. Again, this is contrary to what many believed that once you have been sued for libel in the real world, you can still be sued for the same offense on the internet or online which according to Mr. Sy has an exception, but he was not able to mention any of those exceptions maybe because for lack of time. 

Another misconception that was given light during the discussion was when the representative from the Department of Justice assured the public that a person cannot be sued for libel just by merely liking or sharing a certain post in Facebook … that is again contrary to what many anti-Cybercrime Law proponent believe and understand.  

One of the topics that was tackled during the discussion that made a lot of people uncomfortable with this law is the provision that gives the government the power to block and restrict a particular website without any order from the court. In light of this issue, a representative from the Philippine National Police clarified that this will be applicable only to those sites that are obviously malicious and against the interest of the Filipino people such as pornographic sites and sites with terroristic activities.   

Another important issue that opponents of this law believes that can be subject for abuse is the provision that has to do with real time data collection or access which according to Atty. JJ Disini, a professor of law in University of the Philippines violates the right to privacy of an individual because in this law, even your cell number and your friends number including your conversation can be monitored without you knowing it. In other words, a person can be under surveillance even without an order from the court which many believes violates our constitutional right to privacy, but according to Ms. Janet Toral of Digital Filipino, who support this law, commented that there are situations in our society that needs immediate action in order to catch the perpetrator in cases of text scam, coordinating for ransom in case of kidnapping, bomb explosion using a cell phone, etc. These are just some of the cases that those in authority must act immediately even without a court order on their hands, otherwise if our policemen would still wait for a court order to be released before catching these law offenders … the perpetrators could have changed their numbers and escaped already.      

   

With so many issues revolving the Cybercrime Law that our fellow Filipino have been contemplating right now, what they need to understand that in such a time as this when our country is facing a very sensitive issue that will surely affect every Filipino in one way or the other, may we all be reminded that all of us should act responsibly in whatever we say, post and share on the online world, after all, whatever we post and share on the internet reflects of who we really are as a person.  

Text by Ricky Castillo