From: abs-cbnnews.com
Sen. Vicente "Tito" Sotto III
yesterday denied that he was the one behind the last-minute insertion of a
libel clause in anti-cybercrime law.
But Senate
records and an admission by his own chief of staff, Atty. Hector Villacorta,
tell a totally different story.
Sotto also denied taking part in
creating the law except for plenary debates, according to a report from the Sun.Star Cebu regional
daily. Sotto said he only raised the issue of cybersquatting in the bill's
plenary discussions.
He, however,
said he supports the libel clause in the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 (Republic Act 10175) that was authored by Sen. Edgardo
Angara.
The new law's
Section 4-C(4) declares that online libel is now considered a cybercrime that
can be punished under the Revised Penal Code.
A report by
another regional newspaper, The Freeman, said
Sotto claimed that the Senate committee that handled the bill approved the
online libel rider in the last quarter of 2011.
But Villacorta
told journalist and blogger Raissa Robles that Sotto added libel as a
"content-related offense" in the cybercrime law.
Senate records show that Sotto added
the libel amendment on January 24, 2012. He specifically targeted users of
social media websites.
"Senator Sotto stated that there
are numerous abuses in technology, particularly the video and photo uploading
and unnecessary write-ups and comments in social networking systems," the
Senate journal said.
The senators
who approved the anti-cybercrime law proposal on third and final reading were
Sotto, Loren Legarda, Francis Escudero, Gregorio Honasan II, Aquilino
"Koko" Pimentel III, Pia Cayetano, Bong Revilla Jr., Jinggoy
Ejercito-Estrada, Panfilo Lacson, Lito Lapid, Ferdinand "Bongbong"
Marcos, Ralph Recto, and Manny Villar.###
No comments:
Post a Comment