MANILA, Philippines—“Will we now have offenses such as inciting to sedition with the aid of a computer? Or rebellion committed via the internet?”
The leftwing Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) on Friday criticized the “draconian” Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, saying it violates people’s constitutional rights.
“The new cybercrime law reeks with potential violations of our constitutional rights including our right to privacy and right against unreasonable searches and seizures,” Bayan secretary general Renato Reyes Jr. said in a statement.
“The government will now have tremendous powers, including the collection of real-time traffic data based simply on ‘due cause’, search warrants based on ‘reasonable grounds’ and not probably cause, the blocking of access to websites, and the forcible taking down of websites among others,” he said.
Reyes pointed out that provisions of the law made libel committed online a criminal offense with a heavier penalty. This was contained in the “catch-all” provision in Section 6 of the law that makes all crimes in the Revised Penal Code “if committed by, through and with the use of information and communications technologies” punishable one degree higher, Reyes said.
“Will we now have offenses such as inciting to sedition with the aid of a computer? Or rebellion committed via the internet? The potential for harassment suits against government critics is so huge under this law,” he said.
“With admissions coming from lawmakers that the law is flawed, we are confident that the people’s opposition will succeed. We urge the Supreme Court to give due course to all the petitions filed and will be filed against the draconian cybercrime law,” Reyes added.
Bayan said it would support a protest set on October 2, when the Supreme Court would hold an en banc session to tackle the issue. At least three petitions have been filed before the Supreme Court questioning the constitutionality of the law.
Senator Francis Escudero, one of the authors of the law, had admitted the “shortcomings” of the law, saying he would file an amendment to the law removing the criminal liability but retaining the civil liability.
“We are now studying filing an amendatory law even this early to repeal that provision just to be consistent with the bill that I filed in connection with libel law to impose civil, instead of criminal liability,” Escudero had said.