Cybercrime Law Reaction Paper

photo from: http://www.ifex.org/philippines/2012/10/24/cybercrime_law_explained/

 Cybercrime Law: Is Now the Right Time for It?

                    Issues about a certain bill, which was passed by our President Aquino, have grown even before its implementation. This became a mainstream issue on the cyberworld and other media. Some were happy about the law’s provisions, but others, mostly, disagreed with its rules. The law’s called the Cybercrime Prevention Law which was proposed by Senator Tito Sotto, who was accused of plagiarism in two of his recent speeches. This law has a bright side, but it’s not enough to cover its ugly side.

                    We have a right to freely say what we want, but with limitations. Freedom is not absolute. We must still be conscious on what we’re saying, or even posting on our Facebook walls. In the cyberworld, freedom is welcomed– playing, watching, reading, commenting, liking, sharing and even buying–  what we want. Internet has been a jar of our hidden personalities. An individual’s attitude is changing when entering the cyberworld. And because of that, many became abusive of that freedom and use it to harm other people. This led the government to pass a law concerning the said emerging cyberproblem.

                   The cybercrime law has many obvious disadvantages for netizens– almost all Filipinos are netizens. This law envisions a safe internet world. In line with that, the law contains very heavy punishments for the “abusive” netizens. The problem with that is the way the law considers an internet action abusive. Even liking a libelous content is counted as an abusive action? That’s ridiculous! Many would say that it’s for the safety of the Filipino people, but didn’t they think that it’s a way of depriving a democratic country of its freedom to express thoughts. That’s totally ironic. I’m not saying that it deprives Filipinos of the freedom of speech totally, but a big part of that right is diminished .

                  The law is a threat to an “ideal” justice. The law says that you can be imprisoned for almost 12 years if you are caught red handed on doing something in the internet that is abusive, on the other side, our law about anti women abuse says that if you raped an innocent person, you’ll just be jailed for 3 years! That’s not right. Another thing , the law will be using 50 million pesos a year to successfully implement it, but don’t they know that more hungry stomachs need that amount? Surely, this will be an issue on the proper allocation of our national budget. Lastly, the Philippines has more alarming problems that should be thought first than the cybercrime. Shortage of food and water, poor shelter programs, overpopulation, growing  unemployment and underemployment rate, and global warming are just some them. Why don’t they focus on those things?

                  Cybercrime is very controversial issue on the government this time, but they haven’t solved yet non-cyber crimes in the Philippines which are more life damaging. It’s funny that the government is keeping on acting that they can handle complex and new issues, even though they can’t manage to solve the common ones. The government and our country need to grow more before we go to that “cyber” matter.