Fifth petition vs Cybercrime Act filed this week

The complaints against the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 keep coming: the latest petition brings the number up to five —all filed with the Supreme Court in as many days.

 

A group of lawyers and journalists, including a controversial Davao-based broadcaster earlier convicted of libel, on Friday filed a fresh petition against Republic Act 10175.

 

The petitioners included Davao-based Alex Adonis, veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas, Ma. Gisela Cascolan of Vera Files, and lawyers Harry Roque, Rommel Bagares and Gilbert Andres.

 

In their 41-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, the petitioners asked the high court to issue a temporary restraining order or a writ of prohibitory injunction against the implementation of the Cybercrime Law.

 

The petitioners wanted the high court to struck down as unconstitutional provisions in the law contained in Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, and 19. Sections 4 and 5 tackle the various offenses covered under the Cybercrime Act, including online libel, which the petitioners said was in violation of the people's right to free speech.

 

Sections 6 and 7, meanwhile, respectively hands down a higher-degree of punishment for people found guilty of libel and allows them to be charged separately under the Revised Penal Code for the same offense.

 

The petitioners said this was against the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.

 

The group also questioned Section 19 of the law that gives the Department of Justice the authority to restrict or block access to computer data that would be found prima facie in violation of the Cybercrime Law. 

 

One of the petitioners, Adonis, was convicted of libel in 2007 after reading over his radio program a tabloid article claiming that former Davao City Rep. Prospero Nograles was caught with his pants down while running away from the husband of an alleged mistress inside a Manila hotel. 

 

Adonis was sentenced to four years in jail but was released in December 2008 after getting a parole. "In the very first place, any prosecution for criminal libel is a continuing violation of Philippine State obligations under the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) as the UN Human Rights Committee has so held in is view on Adonis vs. Republic of the Philippines, where the Committee stated that criminal libel in the Revised Penal Code is incompatible with freedom of expression," the petitioners said.

 

Earlier, a group several organizations of journalists, led by Alab ng Mamahayag (ALAM), filed a similar petition to entirely scrap the law.

 

Another petition against the law was filed by Louis Biraogo, who also assailed the constitutionality of Section 4(c), Section 12, Section 20, and the penal provisions of the law.

 

Biraogo earlier succeeded in having President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 1 nullified by the Supreme Court. The executive order created a Truth Commission to investigate anomalies during the administration of Aquino's predecessor, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

 

The third petition was filed on Wednesday by a group of technology law experts led by JJ Disini of the University of the Philippines-College of Law. Disini also questioned the same provisions in the Cybercrime Prevention Law. 

 

The fourth complaint was filed Thursday by Senator Teofisto Guingona III, the lone senator who objected to the Cybercrime measure during its third and final reading at the Senate.

 

Guingona criticized the same sections that the other petitioners have questioned in their respective complaints.

 

"Ang dami nang gumagamit ng Internet at madaming natatakot na dahil pwedeng gamitin na ang batas na ito against freedom of expression and their right to say what they feel," Guingona said.

 

If the Supreme Court rules in his favor, Guingona said he plans to revisit the controversial law, conduct consultations with other stakeholders, and if possible make necessary changes to it. — VVP/TJD, GMA News