eMartial Law Act of 2012

Last night, numerous facebook and twitter users changed their profile pictures to a black image in protest of to the  Republic Act 10175 otherwise known as Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which is in effect today.

The bill gathered criticism and opposition because of the alleged ‘insertion’ of a provision for libel as criminal act that is punishable by 1M pesos or 12 years in prison.

To those who feel that the libel clause would curtail freedom of speech there are several workarounds possible:

First, seek Anabelle Rama’s advise on how to best survive a libel case. She is a veteran.

Second, use vague and ambiguous blind items. Example:

‘Sino itong kasalukuyang presidente na pumirma ng e-martial law na naturingan pa namang anak ng dating presidente na nagtaguyod ng demokrasya ng bansa? ‘

In a totally unrelated news, if Ferdinand Marcos was alive today he would have put his thumbs up and say: ‘Great job Noy! Continue my legacy!’

The insertion of the libel clause in the Cybercrime Prevention Act teaches our kids two valuable things:

First, copying and plagiarism is alright but calling a liar a ‘liar’ or a thief a ‘thief’ or a plagiarist a ‘plagiarist’ is a crime.

Second, it would take a lifetime to pin down a government official for plunder but only a ‘pikon’ polictian-celebrity-personality to send someone to jail.

Recent turn of events had CGMA grinning from ear to ear. She posted a facebook status that said ‘subukan mo lang mag post sa twitter tungkol sa akin at sisihin ang administrasyon ko sa mga SONA mo at idedemanda kita ng libel!’

There are some pending bills in the Congress that are closely related to the eMartial Law Act of 2012 which includes:

eTresspassing Act – a law that makes annoying facebook game requests a criminal act.

eMurder Act- a law that makes premature tweets or facebook status declaring a person dead (contrary to facts) a criminal act.

eCurfew Act- a law that defines the hours where citizens can tweet or update their facebook hours.

eTheft Act- a law that makes unauthorized sharing or re-tweeting of pictures, videos and status a criminal law.

eRape Act- a law that makes unauthorized use of a picture of your unwilling online crush to serve your own carnal pleasures. 

eLandi Act (otherwise known as the Cyber Kulasisi Act) - a law that makes ‘landian’ in facebook and in twitter a crime.

eMo- the act of posting unnecessary and excessive status and tweets related to love, relationship and lack or absence thereof.