PNoy's second thoughts on libel could be signal to amend cybercrime law

He signed it into law, but President Benigno Aquino III has revealed second thoughts about online libel, and even wants it decriminalized. According to Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, that could be the cue for Congress to amend the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, whose implementation was suspended by the Supreme Court earlier this month. Aquino publicly expressed his support for the decriminalization of libel at a forum on Wednesday.   "It may be construed as a signal from the President to Congress to give urgent consideration of appropriate amendatory legislation to the Cybercrime Law, especially pertaining to the libel provision, amidst the 120-day temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by the Supreme Court," De Lima said in a statement.   The high court issued the TRO last week after consolidating 15 petitions questioning Republic Act 10175 for the alleged violation of several constitutional and Bill of Rights provisions on due process, equal protection of the law, and double jeopardy, among others.    De Lima said members of the United Nations Human Rights Committee, whom she recently met with in Geneva, Switzerland, for the Philippines' periodic report on civil and political rights, expressed "very keen interest" in the issues that bedevil the cybercrime law.   "Given a discernible international trend towards the decriminalization of libel, I am quite certain that knowing that our President is, to say the least, open to considering the same, serves as a significant assurance to international human rights advocates and experts that the protection and promotion of civil and political rights in the Philippines is moving in the right direction," De Lima said.   Aquino revealed his support for the decriminalization of libel during the Annual Presidential Forum on the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines on Wednesday.   “I’m divided between sometimes the personal side and the public side. I think, I fully subscribe to the idea of decriminalizing it. But decriminalizing, not lessening the atmosphere to encourage irresponsibility in certain quarters,” Aquino said.   At the same event, Aquino also claimed the provision on libel, which imposes harsher penalties for online offenders, was not an initiative of the executive branch.   De Lima also welcomed the recent passage by Congress of the Anti-Enforced Disappearances Bill. If signed into law by Aquino, the measure will be a "first of its kind in Asia."   "By imposing the maximum penalty of reclusion perpetua, and by providing for the entitlement of victims and their kin to compensation, restitution and rehabilitation, this law shall serve as a recognition of the injury and torment that victims and families of desaparecidos are subjected to, bearing in mind that enforces disappearance is undoubtedly one of the worst forms of human rights violations," De Lima said.   Reclusion perpetua carries with it a prison term of at least 20 years and one day and 40 years at most. — Mark D. Merueñas/KBK/HS, GMA News