Amidst the chaos of the ongoing impeachment trial, the Senate has managed to slide in a new bill. Voting 13-1, the Senate approved Senate Bill 2796 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act on January 30, 2012.
Its nice to know that aside from their extraordinary duties now, they use their caucus for their normal duties too.
SB 2796 was authored by Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, the presiding justice of the impeachment court, Jinggoy Estrada, Antonio Trillanes IV, Edgardo Angara, Lito Lapid, Manuel Villar, Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. Senator Teofisto Guingona III however, voted against the approval of the bill. Saying that it impinged on the freedom of expression and therefore unconstitutional. Its interesting to note that his contested provision is that of “cybersex” in a nutshell because it distinguishes what is “moral” and “immoral” and he would like to be “liberal” about what is moral. His definition, not mine.
Cybercrime offenses would include computer related offenses (computer-related forgery, computer-related fraud), those related to confidentiality and integrity, and those content related offenses. (cybersex, child pornography, unsolicited commercial communications, libel)
I think that it is about time that we had a law regarding these crimes. However, new avenues of technology and software are being developed everyday and its hard for the law to keep up. Maybe we could take a page from the doubts of Senator Guingona and be liberal in the drafting of the law as opposed to being very specific because in a few years time, these might be outdated.
By Trisha Isabelle F. Fernandez Entry #08
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