De Lima says IRR will 'harmonize' Cybercrime Law

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Wednesday assured the public that the still-to-be-drafted implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 would address the objections being hurled against the controversial law.

 

"We will study the provisions being questioned now before the Supreme Court and determine and find out exactly how the IRR can be used in terms of clarifying or harmonizing those so-called objectionable portions," De Lima told reporters in Manila.

 

De Lima said her department was tasked to draw up the IRR with the help of the Department of Interior and Local Government and the Department of Science and Technology.

 

The DOJ, DILG, and DOST have 90 days or three months after the approval of the law last September 12 to come up with an IRR. The DOJ is set to hold a multi-sectoral forum on October 9 to address concerns on the law, even as the agency is set to establish an Office of the Cybercrime with around 150 investigators and prosecutors in cyber forensics.

 

So far, at least seven petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court seeking to stop the law's implementation through a temporary restraining order and declare as unconstitutional the entire law or portions of it. 

 

An eighth petition is set to be filed later in the afternoon by a group of more than 200 journalists who signed an electronic petition (e-Petition) through the website of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.

 

The petitioners are questioning provisions of the law that punish online libel and give authority to the government to shut down websites or pages.

 

De Lima, however, said she saw nothing "objectionable" in Section 19's granting of authority to the DOJ to restrict or block access to computer data that would be found prima facie in violation of the Cybercrime Law. 

 

"Ang lilinawin lang sa IRR ay iyong standard, iyong parameters, iyong proseso. Kasi if you look at other jurisdictions, iyong mga law enforcement authorities have that power, basta ba it is preceded by an investigation a process," De Lima said.

 

"Hindi yung out and out arbitrary na makakita ka lang ng isang kwestiyonableng computer data ay kaagad-agad naming ipapasara kaagad-agad at iba-block. Hindi naman ganun," she added.

 

She said it would be up to the IRR to "really spell out in black and white the exact limitations and exact parameters of the exercise of that power on the part of the DOJ." Online libel

 

De Lima also reiterated that online libel should not have been included in the punishable offenses under the Cybercrime Law.

 

“Hindi sa amin nanggaling ang mga provisions na ‘yun [such as] the libel provision... our position papers would show that we have actually questioned all that," she said.

 

De Lima said she cannot conclude yet whether there are indeed unconstitutional provisions in the law, admitting that so far, she has seen none yet.

 

De Lima reminded those opposing Section 4(c) 4 of the law on online libel that libel itself remains a criminal offense under the Revised Penal Code. "However, the bone of contention now... the trend is to decriminalize libel," she said.

 

De Lima said in case the Supreme Court rules against the critics of the Cybercrime Law, "we will have to live with those provisions." 

 

Asked if children using the Internet would also be dealt with accordingly through the Cybercrime Law, De Lima responded: "We will be very selective kung anong mga kailangan namin na bantayan. We will be very selective naman." — RSJ, GMA News