Manila: A measure has been filed in the Senate as an alternative to the controversial Anti-Cybercrime Law, which has caused jitters among cyber-activists due to its perceived restrictive provisions,
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed Senate Bill No 3327, otherwise known as the “Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom (MCPIF)”.
It essentially seeks to provide parameters concerning the use of cyberspace and the internet while containing penal provisions for punishing crimes committed in cyberspace.
The proposed measure is more positively worded compared with the Anti-Cybercrime Law.
“While it is important to crack down on criminal activities on the internet, protecting constitutional rights like free expression, privacy, and due process should hold a higher place in crafting laws,” Defensor-Santiago said.
Earlier, President Benigno Aquino enacted Republic Act No 10175, or the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act, but before the edict could be enacted , civil liberties groups and cyber-activists slammed the measure.
Human Rights Watch said the Cybercrime Prevention Act provides authorities with “excessive and unchecked” powers that could stifle freedom of speech.
“A new Philippine cybercrime law drastically increases punishments for criminal libel and gives authorities excessive and unchecked powers to shut down websites and monitor online information,” HRW said.
For years, the Philippines had made do without a law governing cyberspace. As a result, cybercriminals had regarded the country as a haven where they could conduct crimes such as cybersex and other similar offenses.
The Cybercrime Prevention Act specifically carries a provision against committing libel which, HRW said, is already detailed in article 355 of the Philippines Revised Penal Code.
“It will now apply to acts committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future,” HRW said.
Defensor-Santiago said: “The MCPIF does not suffer from overbreadth and vagueness in its provisions on libel, unlike the law it tries to replace.” In her explanatory note on her proposed measure, Defensor-Santiago said: “Recognising that the growth of the internet and information and communications technologies both depend on and contribute to the growth of the economy, advances in science and technology and the development of human capital, and encourage democratic discourse and nation-building, the State reaffirms its policy of cooperation and amity with all nations, and its adoption of generally accepted principles of international law as part of the law of the land, in the pursuit of peace.”
Apart from this from these, the Senator affirmed HRW’s observations on the new law. “R.A. 10175 violates the right to privacy and the Constitutional guarantee against illegal search and seizure through allowing the warrantless real-time collection of traffic data,” she said.
