Cybercrime Law in the Philippines

October 2, 2012, when I opened my facebook account, I saw all these posts relating to “Cybercrime Law” being passed by our lawmakers. As to my surprised, all posts contain negative feedbacks. These forced me to search the content of the said law. It took me a while to find a complete copy of Republic Act No. 10175, also known as “Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012″. For some unknown reason, the website of the Philippine government, www.gov.ph, where I planned to get a copy, cannot be accessed.

After successfully finding a copy of the law, I quickly browsed the content and searched for the list  of punishable act or offenses against it. Chapter II Section 4 enumerates the punishable acts. From my own understanding, the punishable acts can be summarized to 1.) hacking, 2.) cyber pornography, and 3.) cyber fraud. 

From the article of Jasmine Solivas-Dayacap on The Cybercrime Prevention Act last September 20, 2012, that was posted in www.iplaw.ph, cybercrime is defined as follows:

“The heart of the new law is its second chapter enumerating thirteen (13) acts constituting the offense of “cybercrime” which are classified into three categories of offenses:

(1) Offenses against the confidentiality, integrity and availability of computer data and systems, i.e., Illegal Access, Illegal Interception, Data Interference, System Interference, Misuse of Devices, and Cyber-squatting;
(2) Computer-related Offenses, i.e., Computer-related Forgery, Computer-related Fraud, and Computer-related Identity Theft.
(3) Content-related Offenses, i.e., Cybersex, Child Pornography, Unsolicited Commercial Communications (otherwise known as spamming), and Libel.”

 According to Senator Chiz Escudero, the provision regarding libel slipped from their scrutiny. The libel provision in the said bill is now the centre of protest of the online community. There are also moves from Senator Teofisto Guingona III to file a petition with the Supreme Court to review the said bill.

Another issue with regards this new law is the weight of punishment for the offenders. A fine of Php 50,000 – 1,000,000 or more and a prison term of 1 month – twelve years, or both depending on the cybercrime committed.

It is nice to know that our lawmakers finally passed a law against cybercrime, but hopefully, this will not also violates the rights the freedom of expression of the Filipinos. It is also disappointing that there are pending bills in the senate that needs much immediate attention than the Cybercrime Law. 

(Note: I tried searching for a list of pending legislation/laws in the senate to no avail. Again to some unknown reason, my browser cannot connect to www. Senate.gov.ph)