1-year prescription period sought for cyber libel

MANILA, Philippines — A ranking lawmaker yesterday proposed a one-year prescription period for the crime of cyber libel.

House constitutional amendments chairman Rufus Rodriguez filed House Bill 7010 that seeks to amend Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, arguing that the 12-year prescription period being applied on the law is too long.

“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 of six years or more, the prescription period is 12 years,” Rodriguez said.

A Manila regional trial court recently convicted journalist Maria Ressa and former writer-researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. of cyber libel in the complaint filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng.

The Cagayan de Oro representative shared the opinion of retired Supreme Court senior associate justice Antonio Carpio that the 12-year prescription period for cyber libel cited by the judge was the “overriding issue” in the case.

The former law dean noted that there have been differing opinions on when the crime of 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 Feb. 5, 2017,” Rodriguez explained.

He said Far Eastern University law dean Mel Sta. Maria cited the ruling of the Supreme Court in upholding the constitutionality of the Anti-Cyber Crime Law, that cyber libel “is not a new crime” since the Revised Penal Code already punishes libel, whose prescription period is only one year.

“Because cyber libel is not a new crime, then the one-year prescriptive period applies to it. Moreover, such prescriptive period (under the Penal Code) was not changed by the Anti-Cyber Libel Law,” Rodriguez said, quoting Sta. Maria.

He pointed out that the Integrated Bar of the Philippines through its president Egon Cayosa has called for the need to clarify the laws in view of questions raised regarding their correct interpretation.

Thus, he stressed that to avoid further confusion, his bill would amend the Anti-Cyber Crime Law to provide that all acts punishable under the 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.