Santiago: ‘It’s better for SC to strike down entire cyber law’

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Tuesday said it would be better for the Supreme Court to strike down not only certain provisions being questioned in the cybercrime law but the entire law itself.

“My position is that because there are so many invalid provisions there, from my humble point of view, it is better for the Supreme Court to strike down the entire law so that Congress will not have the duty of amending certain provisions in part or in whole and thus producing a disjointed bill,” Santiago told reporters.

“The Supreme Court sometimes does that when there are so many provisions in a certain bill or in a certain law that it considers unconstitutional or questionable, it will declare the entire law to be unconstitutional,” she said.

Santiago considered the SC’s decision to stop the implementation of the law a “minor victory.”

“The TRO (temporary restraining order) is always a minor victory. It is always reason to hope that the final decision will be as indicated in the TRO, meaning to say, that the Cybercrime Prevention Act will be declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court,” she said.

“What a relief! This may even be a template for other developing countries that are grappling with the new phenomenon of digital communication,” she added.