Are Filipino Netizens ready for e-Martial Law (Cybercrime Law)?

Written By Anonymous on Monday, October 1, 2012 | 10:51:00 AM

The Passage of the Republic Act No. (RA) 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 outrage netizens not only on the Philippines but some other parts of the World.

The Human Rights Watch also urgued to Replace or Repeal the said Law, saying it's Violates the Constituttion as well as the international conventions.

The Law "violates Filipinos' right to free expression and it is wholly incompatible with the Philippine government's obligation under international law." -- Bryan Adams, Asia Director for HRW

The Aim of the new Cybercrime Law  is to fight against Hacking, Pornography, Identity Theft, and Spamming, This is what THEY said.

What are the other grounds of the e-Martial Law?

Liking, posting, re-tweeting, replying , commenting in a photo, Etc on Social Media  that for them is Libelous faces a maximum prison term of 12 years and a maximum fiine of P1 Million Pesos.

Newspaper Editor or Writer or any other Trained Professional in Traditional Media face a prison term of just 4 years and a fines of P6 000 Pesos.

Also, it also allows the authorities to collect data from a personal user accounts on soial media and listen in voice/video application such as skype, even without a warrant.

Old Blog ,Social Media Post that violates the new law can still be charged of libel. By keeping it today, meaning you still publishing it now.Time to review your facebook, Twitter and blogs if you don't want to go in jail for 12 years.

It Allows the Supreme Court to block or restrict order against websites and systems that violates the law. File Sharing sites, Torrents  and download sites could be gone, when someone file complained against this websites.

The Cybercrime Prevention Act technically takes effect on October 3, or after 15 days it was published in the papers and on the Official Gazette on September 18. The President signed the law on September 12.

There are already Five Petitions including one filed by journalist and bloggers, filed in the Supreme Court all says that the law violates freedom of expression, Due process, equal protection and privacy of communication.

Sen Teofisto Guingona III,who voted against the passage of the law, has petitioned the SC to void the the provisions of the cybercrime law, that the said law is Unconstitutional.

"The last time I checked, We were still a democracy. We Want empowered citizens, Not Scared and passive Ones." Sen. Guingona said

Lacierda said Freedom Expression is always recognized but Freedom of expression is not absolute.

We see other nations fight for freedom against Stop Online Piracy Act(SOPA) and the Protect IP ACT (PIPA), and what we are facing now is can be far worse than that. What Sopa/Pipa Aimed to be, The Cybercrime Law has done.

If speaking up against Idiocy in government and unconstitutional amendments is a crime, What kind of Freedom of Expression are they trying to say.