MANILA, Philippines — To appease enraged Internet users protesting over contentious provisions of the newly enacted Cybercrime Prevention Act, lawmakers who voted in favor of the passage of the bill are now seeking to make amends — both emotionally and legally — as pressure from social media users continue to mount Wednesday.
The latest to join the growing list of Senators seeking to amend the Cybercrime Law is the measure’s author itself, Sen. Edgardo Angara, who appealed to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to hold off on the implementation of Section 19 of the law.
Section 19 gives the DOJ sweeping powers to “restrict or block access” to computer systems or websites found to be prima facie in violation of the provisions of the law.
“I will file an amendatory bill on Monday to include the principle of search and seizure order under the Constitution,” Angara said.
Similar moves were observed from others who voted in favor of the law during Senate deliberations, including Sen. Pia Cayetano who, while pointing out that no opposition to the questionable provisions were raised before, promised to make things right in the name of Internet freedom.
“It’s impossible to predict every issue that will arise w/ every bill. But I’ll address it as soon as I can,” Cayetano tweeted.
Earlier, Sen. Chiz Escudero, who is gunning for re-election during the mid-term elections next year, backtracked and said that while he voted in favor of the bill, he now acknowledges that the insertion of the libel provision was a “mistake.”
Escudero admitted that having libel included in the acts punishable by the law was a “personal oversight” on his part, and in the same breath flouted his stance as a principal proponent of a bill that aims to decriminalize libel.
Escudero’s comments were later called out by Sen. Vicente Sotto III — who, during a spate of online comments regarding the alleged plagiarism in his anti-Reproductive Health bill speech, cited the Cybercrime law as a means to silence his critics — told the younger legislator to rush the decriminalization of libel instead of pushing to strike out the specific provision on it.
“Mas mahirap pa yung gusto nya eh, ipasa na lang yung decriminalization, meron na nun sa committee nya eh [in Escudero’s Committee on Human Rights and Justice], (What he want is harder to do; why not just the pass the decriminalization (of libel), which is already in his committee)” Sotto pointed out.
Digital lobby
Apart from various petitions filed before the Supreme Court calling for the repeal of certain sections of the law, Filipino Internet users have been quite active in making their stand regarding the law known to all — particularly the Senators who voted for the passage of the bill.
On Tuesday, or a day before the law takes full effect, Facebook users blacked out their profile pictures and posted status updates redacted by black horizontal bars, as if demonstrating how the new law could muzzle free speech online.
Various websites, such as the InterAksyon.com homepage, have also blacked out their content to join protests against the controversial law.
And at least one online initiative is keeping count of the legislators’ moves and pronouncements: InternetFreedom.ph, put up by the Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance and The New Media, a digital marketing blog owned by TV5′s digital publishing business unit head Carlo Ople.
“It’s a people-powered digital lobby to amend the Cybercrime [Law],” Ople told InterAksyon. In the website, the group keeps a virtual scoreboard of which senators have voted for the passage of the bill, and which have already made public statements about amending it.
As of posting time, the following Senators have manifested intent to amend the law: Teofisto “TG” Guingona III, the lone oppositor to the bill; Escudero; Cayetano; Angara; Koko Pimentel; and Antonio Trillanes IV.
Ople said the photos of the senators that appear on the site are linked to their social networking acounts “so people can tweet them” and to put “pressure on Senators to amend the Cybercrime Law.”
“In the last 24 hours, it racked over 80,000 unique visits and it’s constantly climbing,” Ople said. “More views [means] more pressure for senators.”
Ironic
Ironically, the Liberal Party, to which President Benigno Aquino III belongs, had indicated that during the Senatorial elections next year. they will be stepping up the use of social media — one of the many online mediums that the Cybercrime Law seeks to regulate.
“There will be fewer rallies this election. It will be more on new media, social media, mass media. Piling-pili ang mga rallies,” said Aurora Rep. Sonny Angara, son of Sen. Angara, who is part of the Senate administration ticket for next year’s elections.
President Aquino, after “thorough examination” by the office of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, signed the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 on September 12, or mere days before the 40th anniversary of the proclamation of Martial Law in 1972.
Netizens, pundits, and lawyers have gone on to describe the new measure as “E-Martial Law,” as it seeks to curtail Filipinos’ civil liberties as enshrined in the constitution.
Malacañang, however, claimed that despite the presence of contentious provisions, Filipinos’ civil liberties are safe and would be protected under the new law.
source: interaksyon.com
