CAGAYAN de Oro 2nd District Representative Rufus Bautista Rodriguez filed on Thursday, June 18, 2020, a bill seeking to impose a one-year prescription period for cyber libel.
House Bill (HB) No. 7010 would amend Republic Act (RA) 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
According to Rodriguez, the said law did not provide any prescription period for punishable crimes.
“In order to hopefully avoid any further confusion, this bill provides for amendments to RA 10175 by providing for a prescription period for the offenses punishable by the said law,” Rodriguez said in his explanatory note.
Rodriguez noted that in the case against Rappler executive editor Maria Ressa and former writer Reynaldo Santos Jr., the Department of Justice (DOJ) used RA 3326 which states that the prescription period is 12 years for any other offense punished by imprisonment for six years or more.
The lawmaker said several legal experts argue on when the crime of cyber libel prescribes.
“Since the article involved in the case was published in May 2012, then the alleged crime has prescribed in May 2013 and if, granting for the sake of argument that it was published in February 2014, then the complainant only had until February 2015 to file the case,” Rodriguez said.
“The case was filed in court on February 5, 2019,” he added.
Rodriguez quoted Far Eastern University (FEU) law dean Mel Sta. Maria, who cited the ruling of the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law in 2014.
“Because cyber libel is not a new crime, then the one-year prescriptive period applies to it. Moreover, such prescriptive period was not changed by the Anti-Cyber Libel Law,” Rodriguez said, quoting Sta. Maria.
Rodriguez also noted that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has called for the need to clarify the law to leave less room for interpretation or misapplication. (SunStar Philippines)