Rufus Rodriguez files House bill seeking one-year prescription period for cyber libel

Cagayan De Oro City Representative Rufus Rodriguez has filed a bill proposing a one-year prescription period for the crime of cyber libel.

Rodriguez filed House Bill 7010, which contained the proposal, following the conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. for cyber libel under RA 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Under the bill, RA 10175 is amended to provide that all acts punishable under the said law would prescribe in three years from the commission of the offense, except for cyber libel, which would lapse in one year from the date of publication of the article.

According to Rodriguez, RA 10175 does not provide any prescription for punishable acts under the law.

A prescription period sets the limit for filing charges from the time that the crime occurred.

Rodriguez said that in the case of Ressa and Santos, the Department of Justice used in court RA 3326, which provides that "for any other offenses punishable by imprisonment for six years or more, the prescription period is 12 years."

But he noted the comment of retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio that the 12-year prescription period of cyber libel used by the judge was the "overriding issue" in the Ressa-Santos case.

Other legal experts also have differing opinions on when the crime of cyber libel prescribes, Rodriguez said.

"Some legal experts argue that since the article involved in the Ressa-Santos case was published in May 2012, then the alleged crime had prescribed in May 2013. If it was republished in February 2014, then the complainant had only until February 2015 to file a complaint. The case was filed in court on February 5, 2019," he said.

He also cited the opinion of Far Eastern University law dean Mel Sta. Maria, who said that when the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of RA 10175, cyber libel has been described as a "not a new crime," since the Revised Penal Code already punishes libel with a prescription period of only one year.

"Because cyber libel is not a new crime, then the one-year prescriptive period applies to it. Moreover, such prescriptive period (under the Penal Code) was not changed by the Anti-Cyber Libel Law," Rodriguez said, quoting Sta. Maria.

Rodriguez is hoping that the amendments he is proposing for RA 10175 "will put to rest the issue of prescription of the crime of cyber libel."

The case against Ressa and Santos stemmed from an article published by Rappler in 2012 that cites an "intelligence report" linking Wilfredo Keng, a businessman and the private complainant, to human trafficking and drug smuggling.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 had not been enacted at the time the story was published, but prosecutors alleged that a supposedly "republished" version of the story in February 2014 is covered by the law.

In January 2019, investigating prosecutors from the Department of Justice recommended the filing of a cyber libel case against Ressa, Santos, and Rappler Inc., saying the story  is "clearly defamatory" as it "imputes to complainant Keng the commission of crimes."

On Monday, the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 found Ressa and Santos guilty of cyber libel on Monday and sentenced them to six months and one day to up to six years in jail.

The two remain free after being granted post-conviction bail. — Erwin Colcol/RSJ, GMA News