Abante, socmed personalities argue if cursing part of freedom of speech

Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante. File photo INQUIRER.net/Noy Morcoso

MANILA, Philippines — Should cursing on social media, particularly for public officials, be considered beyond the tenets of freedom of speech?

The question was the subject of a lengthy debate between Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. and different vloggers and bloggers online. That is after a lawmaker called out a social media personality for cursing him and threatening to slap him.

At the third hearing of the House of Representatives’ tri-committee held on Tuesday, Abante scolded another blogger, this time Elizabeth Joie Cruz, for badmouthing him.

“Ito babasahin ko ah, ang sabi mo ganito: ‘Cong. Abante, paswelduhan ka ng taxpayer, gago’.  Tinawag mo akong gago, bakit, ba’t mo ginawa sa akin ‘yon, gusto mo ba akong umiyak sa’yo ngayon, ba’t mo ginawa sa akin ‘yon?  Bakit mo ako tinawag na gago?”  [I’ll read it, this is what you said: ‘Cong. Abante, your salary comes from taypayers, stupid.  You called me stupid, why did you do that, do you want me to cry now and ask you why?  Why did you call me that?], said Abante.

“What is your right to call me gago?”

Cruz countered:  “Because I am a citizen of the Philippines […] that is part of my freedom of speech, Mr. Chair. That is part of my freedom of speech.”

“So your freedom of speech is to tell a person that he is gago?  Freedom of speech ba yan? [Is that freedom of speech]” Abante asked again.

“My freedom of speech, part of my freedom of speech is to react on the action of a public official,” Cruz noted.

Cursing public officials

Abante was reminded by other bloggers, including Elijah San Fernando — a labor leader who cited Supreme Court decisions — that cursing public officials due to their work is allowed under free speech.

““Mr. Chair, no other than the highest court of the land, has repeatedly said that it is not bad to curse especially towards public officials, especially if it is referring to their official functions, not the person, but their official functions,” San Fernando said in Filipino.

“So we stand on that ground, especially us workers, because even though you have Tiktok, Facebook or social media, at the community level, that is the language of the workers and ordinary Filipino who are mad at the government.  It is not the fault of vloggers or Facebook, Tiktok, X users, why people curse,” added San Fernando.

Abante, however, noted that vloggers cannot be considered ordinary Filipinos because of the influence they held.

When Abante turned to people from news and information website PressONE PH, researchers John Hurt Allauigan said that it is beyond their capacity as they deal with debunking misinformation and disinformation online.

READ: Palace: Anti-profanity ordinance in Baguio violates freedom of speech

“Mr. Chair, no, we were confined with the facts as researchers, so I think as long as, if Ms. Joey Cruz is giving her opinions — and her opinions alone — I think it is beyond our capacity […] because she is entitled to her own truth.  But again, if it has something to do with the known facts, I think we can debunk what is being said,” he said.

Antipolo 2nd District Rep. Romeo Acop, meanwhile, noted that freedom of speech is not absolute, as it does not give people the right to violate other people’s rights.

Badmouthing others

“Whoever said that we should understand the person who badmouthed others because of their frustration, I just want to say that frustrations wouldn’t give you the right to violate the law,” Acop said in Filipino.

“Because there are avenues legal or provided by law to express your frustrations.  That is precisely the reason why the freedom of expression is not absolute,” he added.

This is not the first time that Abante scolded a vlogger.  Last March 21, at the second tri-committee hearing, Abante lashed out at some vloggers who insinuated that lawmakers are “dimwits,” firing back by saying that these social media personalities are “stupid” because they write without thinking.

Abante grilled vlogger MJ Quiambao-Reyes due to her claim that there were no extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that happened during the Duterte administration’s drug war.

READ: Abante calls some vloggers ‘stupid’: They write without thinking

The tri-committee has been tasked to probe the spread of disinformation online after several resolutions were filed and different privilege speeches about the matter were delivered.

Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers was one of the lawmakers who delivered a privilege speech, after different fake rumors were spread about him and the other chairpersons of the House’s quad committee.

During that time, the quad committee was probing illegal activities in Philippine offshore gaming operators, the illicit drug trade, and extrajudicial killings in the past administration’s drug war.