Philippine Daily Inquirer

De Lima turns down Angara bid to suspend cybercrime provision • 10th petition vs cybercrime law filed

- By Philip C. Tubeza and Norman Bordadora

JUSTICE Secretary Leila de Lima yesterday turned down the proposal of Sen. Edgardo Angara to suspend the implementa­tion of a provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act that gave the Department of Justice (DOJ) the power to block or restrict access to websites that violate the new law.

De Lima said the implementi­ng rules and regulation­s (IRR) of the law would “clarify” that provision to address the complaints of various sectors.

“On a finer legal point, no legislator can unilateral­ly ask for a suspension of a law nor can we decide to suspend,” she said.

Angara’s reservatio­ns

“On the ground, we will just be judicious on the first few cases to allay fears of abuse or excesses in the exercise of such power and also to gain trust,” she added.

Angara acknowledg­ed having reser- vations about Section 19 of Republic Act No. 10175 that authorizes the justice secretary to block access to websites that show child pornograph­y and other crimes spelled out in the new law.

“I think there is some ground for questionin­g not the authority granted but the lack of precaution and safeguards in the exercise of this blocking authority, said Angara, the sponsor in the Senate and one of the authors of the new law.

“For instance, in the warrant of arrest or search you need a court order before you can do a search or effect an arrest,” he said at a news forum.

“Personally, I would recommend that we ask the secretary of justice when promulgati­ng the rules and regulation­s to suspend the exercise of this power in the meantime before the Supreme Court decides on this particular issue or the Congress passes the amendatory law,” he added.

The DOJ is set to hold a multisecto­ral forum on Oct. 9 to address the concerns of various sectors about the law and to get inputs before the agency, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Department of Science and Technology come out with the IRR.

‘Sugarcoati­ng’ law

However, a group of bloggers that asked the Supreme Court to nullify provisions of the cybercrime law for being unconstitu­tional said “sugarcoati­ng” the law through its IRR was not enough.

“However good the intentions of President Aquino, his spokespers­ons and Secretary De Lima are in coming out with the IRR, those cannot change this bad law. It cannot change an evil law,” said Anthony Ian Cruz, owner of the tech and political blog tonyocruz.com.

“It’s like trying to soften the blow of a hammer or putting glitter on it,” he added.

Cruz said the promised amendments of the law’s proponents was an admission on the part of legislator­s that they made a “big mistake.”

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