The Cybercrime Law of the Philippines, A Necessary Evil?

image from goodfilipino.com

There is so much noise generated by Republic Act 10175 also known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 because of the controversial provisions such as “online libel”, “take down clause”, “collection of personal data” among many other vague provisions.

I support the move to elevate the questionable provisions of the new law to the Supreme Court.

I am also an advocate of “responsible use of our freedom”, because some netizens have abused this to harm others in various forms- identity theft, cyber bullying/harassment, social engineering. Much worse, foreign syndicates have taken advantage of our lack of cyber laws to use PH as hub for their operations.

The clamor to protect civil liberties is laudable. We must, however, confine our opposition to provisions affecting due process and human rights, and not the whole law as this is a step backwards.

Likewise, those crafting the IRR or implementing rules and regulations , given the resounding opposition, should be able to clarify how the vague provisions should be implemented.

And if the IRR will not be available anytime soon, to avoid the abuse of of the vague provisions, SC should be able to rule on the matter as early as possible or suspend the implementation of controversial provisions pending the resolution of the appeal.