Lacson: Website owner’s arrest questionable

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Sunday insisted that the arrest of Rodel Jayme, who owned the website that allegedly spread the “True Narcolist” videos that tagged President Rodrigo Duterte’s family to the narcotics trade, was “questionable” as it may have violated the anticybercrime law.

Lacson pointed out that Jayme appeared to have only helped in uploading the series of videos of a man who identified himself only as “Bikoy.”

He said the Supreme Court had already struck down as unconstitutional the provision of Republic Act No. 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, that declared the mere sharing of defamatory videos and articles online as a criminal offense.

Only original author liable

Lacson said this legal fact would raise questions surrounding the circumstances of Jayme’s arrest by the National Bureau of Investigation last week.

“In 2014, the Supreme Court had issued a decision that only the original author [of the defamatory videos] may be held accountable,” Lacson told radio dzBB.

“Those who only uploaded, shared or commented on [the videos] cannot be indicted. The provision that sought to hold criminally liable even those who are not the original author was declared unconstitutional,” he said.

In a press briefing, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra clarified that Jayme, who was actually the registered owner of the website metrobalita.net, was not the one who uploaded the videos of Bikoy, who had accused the President’s son, former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, of being a member of a Chinese drug syndicate.

Not the opposition

Lacson, a seasoned police investigator, also pooh-poohed insinuations that the opposition Liberal Party masterminded the spread of the videos, saying the personalities or groups behind the videos did not matter.

He, however, insisted that the Senate cannot conduct an investigation, as proposed by detained opposition Sen. Leila de Lima, unless Bikoy himself would surface to substantiate his allegations.

“Anybody can just appear in the dark, cover their face and speak about certain things … If we are going to hold an investigation, who should we ask? It’s Bikoy, right? If he does not surface, can we ask questions to the videos?” he said.

Opposition Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV agreed with Lacson that Bikoy must appear in public to support his claims, but warned that Bikoy might open himself to security risks if he decided to reveal his true identity.

Trillanes reiterated that the Magdalo group had no knowledge about the videos of Bikoy and the disturbing allegations he had leveled against the President and his family.

“But it would be better for the NBI and the [justice department] to look first into the allegations of Bikoy before claiming that what he said were not true,” he said.

“The way Malacañang reacted to this only showed that they are now panicking,” he added.