15th petition vs cyber law filed with SC

The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A group of Internet users known as Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance (Pifa) on Monday filed with the Supreme Court a petition that sought to declare as unconstitutional the Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

In its 61-page petition, Pifa also asked the high court that while the petition is pending, it should require the government to cease and desist from implementing the law.

Petitioners said the Cybercrime Prevention Act violates the freedom of speech, expression and of the press, unreasonable searches and seizures, right to privacy, due process, equal protection of the law, among others. They added that the law is “constitutionally infirm on its face for being vague and overbroad.”

“In a deliberate democracy, where the sovereign people participate in the life of the nation and take interest in the running of government, the more speech is made easily available to the most people, the better. The Philippine Constitution recognizes and promotes communication structures suitable for deliberative discourse of Filipinos,” the petition stated.

“The Cybercrime Prevention Act, however, would disrupt the policy environment in accordance with the freedom of speech and of the press for the balanced flow of information within the Philippines via the Internet,” it added.

The petition filed by Pifa is the 15^th petition against the Cybercrime Prevention Act which was filed with the Supreme Court. Early Monday, Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares and the National Press Club filed separate petitions assailing the constitutional of several provisions of the law.