Lawmaker files bill seeking 1 year prescription for cyber libel

CAGAYAN n de Oro Second District Representative Rufus Rodriguez has filed a bill that proposes a one-year prescription period for cyber libel.

Rodriguez said his bill would amend the Anti-Cyber Crime Law to provide that all acts punishable under said statute would prescribe in three years from the commission of the offense, except for cyber libel, which would lapse in one year from the date of publication of the article.

The Kagay-anon lawmaker filed House Bill 7010 after a Manila regional trial court convicted journalists Maria Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. of cyber libel.

In his bill, Rodriguez said the two media practitioners were found guilty of violating Section 4 (c) (4) of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

Rodriguez said the law penalizes “acts of libel as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, committed through a computer system or any other similar means which may be devised in the future.”

“RA 10175 did not provide for any prescription for punishable acts in said law. The Department of Justice used in court RA 3326, which provides that for any other offenses punishable by imprisonment for six years or more, the prescription period is 12 years,” Rodriguez added.

Rodriguez said there have been differing opinions on when the cyber libel prescribes.

“Some legal experts argue that since the article involved in the Ressa-Santos case was published in May 2012, then the alleged crime had prescribed in May 2013. If it was republished in February 2014, then the complainant had only until February 2015 to file a complaint. The case was filed in court on February 5, 2019,” he added.

Rodriguez said to avoid any further confusion, his bill would put to rest the issue of prescription of the crime of cyber libel.