Lawyer: Hontiveros can’t be sued for violating Anti-Wiretapping Law

A lawyer on Tuesday said Senator Risa Hontiveros could not be held liable for disclosing supposed text exchanges between Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II and former Negros Oriental Rep. Jacinto Paras.

"She was not the one doing it. And whoever did it did not do it intentionally. There is no wiretapping here. This is a picture taken by someone without intent to see what is in the message," former Ateneo School of Government dean Antonio La Viña told GMA News Online.

La Viña said wiretapping is an overt act to listen in on or to intercept a conversation, something that was allegedly not present in the acts of Hontiveros and the photojournalist who reportedly took the image on September 5 during the Senate hearing on Kian Delos Santos' death.

An "enraged" Aguirre called the public disclosure of the text messages a "shameless violation of a citizen’s right to the privacy of communications" and a violation of Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wire Tapping Act.

The Justice Secretary added that he is already mulling filing cases against those responsible for violating his constitutional rights, adding his experience only showed that anyone can be a victim of invasion of privacy.

"No one can feel safe because no one is safe, not even our Senators. Who will be next?" he said in a statement.

"All that any person with an axe to grind against anyone has to do is to claim that a member of the media inadvertently took a picture of the text messages in the screen of a targeted person’s mobile phone and precipitate its unauthorized release to the public," he added.

Aguirre, however, would not comment on the content of the text messages, nor address allegations that he was plotting to bring cases against Hontiveros, whose office took custody of three witnesses to Delos Santos' killing during an anti-drug operation in Caloocan City on August 16. — BM, GMA News