Senators push for bills to counteract SC ruling on online libel

Senators on Thursday pushed for bills meant to counteract the recent Supreme Court decision upholding the online libel provision in the anti-cybercrime law.

Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Teofisto Guingona III separately called for immediate action on measures they filed seeking to decriminalize libel.

Cayetano, author of Senate Bill 245, said the SC ruling on online libel will just further clog the country’s courts.

“Kung magkakasuhan tayong lahat, mapupuno ang mga korte. Walang mangyayari kung hindi ang mga piskalya, walang ibang gagawin kung hindi mag-prosecute ng Internet and social media libel cases,” Cayetano said in a statement.

Guingona, who filed Senate Bill 2128, meanwhile said the Philippines, as a democratic country, should promote freedom of expression and not dangle the “threat of jail” to those who want to speak out through any medium.

“We must not forget how hard we fought for the democracy that we now enjoy, and that includes our freedom to speak against erring public officials. It is counter intuitive therefore for us to have come this far and yet have the cloud of possible imprisonment impinge on the liberties that the very democracy we have fought for seeks to protect,” Guingona said in a separate statement.

On Tuesday, the high court declared the online libel provision in the cybercrime prevention law as constitutional, “with respect to the original author of the post.”

The court, however, struck down the provision that empowers the Department of Justice (DOJ) to restrict or block access to data violating the law.

Senators Juan Edgardo Angara and Francis Escudero have also earlier called for immediate action on bills seeking to remove prison terms for those found guilty of libel.

Magna Carta for Internet Freedom

At a separate briefing, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago agreed that decriminalizing libel is the “optimum” way of counteracting the SC ruling on Internet libel.

“That is the international trend today. Various states in the world have already passed legislation on their respective penal codes decriminalizing the statute,” she said.

She added that Congress should also prioritize her Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom, which seeks to uphold the right to security of Internet data, and the protection of the Internet as an open network.

“I call on all netizens to magnify all efforts to either file a motion for reconsideration or we can speed it up here at the Senate that I filed from crowdsourcing,” Santiago said.

For her part, Senator Grace Poe, who heads the public information committee handling bills to decriminalize libel, agreed that these measures need to be fast-tracked in the light of the recent SC ruling on the anti-cybercrime law.

“I think it is important to pass a bill to decriminalize libel immediately in order to encourage participative democracy. We need to protect free expression,” Poe said in a text message. — KBK, GMA News