DOJ starts consultations for ‘straightforward, comprehensive’ cybercrime law IRR

A month after the Supreme Court's landmark ruling on the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the government has started consultations for the creation of implementing rules and regulations for the law.

In a statement, the Department of Justice said it has already convened the first working group to formulate the IRR of Republic Act 10175.

The working group is composed of members from the Information and Communications Technology Office of the Department of Science and Technology and from the Department of Interior and Local Government.

"In keeping with our mandate under the law, the DOJ is initiating this much-awaited IRR to clarify how government will proceed with the enforcement of cybercrime legislation," said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

De Lima stressed that the IRR should be "straightforward and comprehensive that stakeholders are guided and the only thing that our law enforces do is to implement it."

The Justice Secretary assured the public that the IRR woulf "harmonize" with several existing laws including RA 8484 or the Access Devices Regulation Act of 2008, RA 8729 or the e-Commerc Act of 2002, RA 9775 or the Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009 and RA 9995 or the Anti-Photo and Voyeurism Act of 2009.

After getting insights from the DOTC and the DILG during this first round of consultations, the DOJ will next conduct consultation meetings with representatives from the business sector, media, academe, and technology companies.

According to Section 28 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, the government has 90 days or three months from the time the law has become final to promulgate the IRR.

The SC has yet to rule on a motion for recconsideration filed by a group of petitioners contesting the controversial law, especially provisions on online libel.

Justice Assistant Secretary Geronimo Sy, head of the DOJ-Office for Cybercrime earlier said online libel as a cybercrime has already been removed from an "enhanced" version of the Cybercrime Prevention Act that the Department of Justice plans to submit to Congress.

In its February 18 ruling, the SC upheld the constitutionality of online libel "with respect to the original author of the post but unconstitutional only where it penalizes those who simply receive the post or react to it."

President Benigno Aquino III signed the law in 2012 to stamp out cybercrimes such as fraud, identity theft, spamming and child pornography.

In October 2012, the high court had put the law's implementation on hold after receiving 15 petitions questioning the constitutionality of some of the law's provisions. Various groups had decried the Cybercrime Law for purportedly threatening freedom of speech, increasing the penalties for libel, and making it easier for authorities to spy on citizens via electronic media. — BM, GMA News