MANILA, Philippines – Voyeurs, be warned.

Possession of video recordings showing “private acts” could get you into trouble.

A party-list lawmaker has filed a bill seeking to penalize people who “knowingly possess” video recordings of “private acts, including, but not limited to, sexual acts.”

Buhay Rep. Irwin Tieng’s House Bill 4315, that also covers those who replay such clips or share these with others, imposes on violators a penalty of up to six years imprisonment and a fine that could reach P500,000.

“Lately, a number of obscene sexual acts or other pornographic materials have been exhibited and shown over the Internet and even shared [through] other electronic gadgets like mobile phones, much to the humiliation of the victims,” Tieng said in the bill’s explanatory note.

“Evil-spirited individuals continue to debase the image of the offended party by recording the private acts of lovers or partners, usually without the consent of either party,” he added.

Deplorable act

“This is the worst thing you can do to a woman,” Tieng said in a statement. “Not only do you destroy her by your deplorable physical act, you also strip her of all remaining honor, self-respect, social standing, and hope by spreading the inhuman act in the Internet or mobile phones for all the world to see.”

On Wednesday, a 17-year-old nursing student from Cavite province, an alleged victim of a gang rape – a an incident which was videotaped by her attackers through a cell phone camera – made this appeal to anyone who gets hold of the video: “Don’t view it, don’t share it, please.”

Ordeal

In a press conference in Quezon City Wednesday, the victim narrated her ordeal which began on Feb. 14, when a friend and her boyfriend invited her to a house in Dasmariñas, Cavite.

The house was reportedly owned by a man who was looking for a girlfriend.

The victim said in her four-page complaint that when they got to the house, they were joined by three other men, allegedly college students like her.

After a few drinks, the victim said she lost consciousness and found herself in another room where she said she was raped repeatedly.

All the while, one of the suspects was videotaping the scene.

Out of fear and shame, the victim said she kept the incident to herself until a friend told her two months later that she had seen a video clip of the incident on a schoolmate’s cell phone.

The clip soon circulated among students at the victim’s school. Film pirates later got hold of it, adding it to the growing number of “sex scandal” videos in the country.

“It’s tantamount to double rape,” Rep. Liza Maza of Gabriela said in Wednesday’s media briefing.

The video clip, however, enabled the victim to identify the suspects.