A legislator has proposed a one-year prescription period for the crime of cyberlibel.
Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed House Bill 7010 after a Manila regional trial court convicted journalist Maria Ressa and former writer-researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. of cyber libel. A businessman filed the complaint against Ressa and Santos.
In his bill, Rodriguez noted that the two media practitioners were found guilty of violating Section 4(c)(4) of Republic Act 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
He 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.”
He said after the conviction of Ressa and Santos, retired Supreme Court associate Justice Antonio Carpio commented that the 12-year prescription period of cyber libel cited by the judge was the “overriding issue” in the case.
“RA No. 10175 did not provide for any prescription for punishable acts in said law. The Department of Justice used in court RA No. 3326, which provides that for any other offenses punishable by imprisonment for six years or more, the prescription period is 12 years,” Rodriguez added.
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, 2019,” he said.
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 said that to avoid any further confusion, 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.
“This will put to rest the issue of prescription of the crime of cyber libel,” he said.