News Roundup 17 July 2022
Jul 17, 2022 • 5 min Read
UN expert calls for, Makabayan bloc seeks decriminalization of libel | PHILSTAR.COM – After the Court of Appeals upheld cyber libel charges against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and its former researcher Reynaldo Santos, a United Nations special rapporteur is calling on the Marcos Jr. administration to put an end to the use of libel against journalists. Meanwhile, lawmakers at the House of Representatives have refiled a bill seeking to amend the country’s laws to decriminalize libel. Redress for libel would still be available under the Civil Code. “The criminalization of journalists for libel impedes public interest reporting and is incompatible with the right to freedom of expression,” UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Irene Khan said in a statement dated July 14. “Criminal libel law has no place in a democratic country and should be repealed.” Similar to what Ressa and Santos raised in their appeal, Khan noted that the country’s 2012 Cybercrime Prevention Act has been applied retroactively since the two are in hot water over a story that was published even before the law was enacted. A May 2012 article was updated by Rappler in February 2014 due to a typographical error. Government prosecutors ruled that the correction was considered a republication of the story. The Court of Appeals this month upheld an earlier decision of a Manila court convicting both Ressa and Santos of cyber libel. Their potential prison time was even lengthened to six years, eight months, and 20 days from the previous period of six months and a day. “This is yet another example of the relentless attack against Maria Ressa for daring to speak truth to power,” Khan said. Rep. France Castro (ACT Teachers Party-list), Rep. Arlene Brosas (GABRIELA Women’s Party), and Rep. Raoul Manuel (Kabataan Party-list) have filed a bill seeking to decriminalize libel through amendments in the country’s revised penal code. In the explanatory note of Bill No. 1769, the lawmakers noted that “the law has been increasingly used by public officials and public figures as a tool to cow and muzzle an independent press, usually to shield themselves from critical reportage and even innocent comment in their acts and decisions.” “Instead of protecting the freedoms and rights of the people, the government uses threats and weaponizes the law to create a chilling effect in the media and the people and dissuade them from speaking out on the anti-people policies of this administration,” Castro said.
Marcos admin urged to assert arbitral award to help keep energy costs down | PHILSTAR.COM – Retired Associate Justice Antonio Carpio hopes that country’s new leadership will have the “political will” when asserting the 2016 ruling in the arbitration case against China, which would allow Manila use of natural resources, like oil and gas, in the West Philippine Sea. Data from the country’s Department of Energy provides the resource potential of the Recto Bank (international name: Reed bank), which is within the West Philippine Sea, stood at 165 million barrels of oil and 3,486 billion cubic feet of gas. Malampaya, which powers 20% of the country’s electricity needs, is seen to be fully depleted by 2027. “Without Reed Bank, the Philippines will have to import LNG — Liquefied Natural Gas — to feed its gas-fired powerplants in Luzon,” Carpio said. “This will send our energy costs, already the highest in Asia, soaring through the roof, burdening the consuming public and driving away potential investors.” The historic arbitral award invalidates China’s so-called nine-dash-line claims over much of the South China Sea and provides that some of the areas are within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and continental shelf. Carpio wants President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to be firm when dealing with China to ensure that the ruling is enforced as China has long ignored it and the previous administration was “in severe deficit when dealing with China.” He pointed out that former President Rodrigo Duterte in April this year “slavishly ordered Forum Energy, the Service Contractor in Reed Bank, not to send its survey ship to Reed Bank” even if it is within the Philippines’ EEZ. “Hopefully, the new Marcos administration will find the courage to exercise the much-needed political will, otherwise Filipinos will be condemned to suffer even higher energy costs than what they are already experiencing today,” Carpio said. Carpio noted that two other countries in Southeast Asia were able to assert their sovereignty over their EEZ. “Two coastal states, Malaysia and Indonesia, whose EEZ are enroached by China’s nine-dash line, asserted their sovereign rights in their EEZs despite threats of war from China and harassment from Chinese Coast Guard vessels,” Carpio said. “Malaysia and Indonesia successfully asserted their sovereign rights even without an arbitral award or a Mutual Defense Treaty with a nuclear armed state.”
PCG rescues 24 human trafficking victims in Basilan | INQUIRER.NET –Twenty-four victims of human trafficking were rescued in Basilan, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) reported on Sunday. According to the PCG, the victims, bound for Malaysia, were rescued at the Barangay Shipyard Main in Maluso, Basilan on Friday, 4:30 a.m., after the local police conducted operations. Based on investigation, the victims, aged 11 to 60, are living in Zamboanga City, Zamboanga Del Norte, Zamboanga Del Sur, Misamis Occidental, and Basilan. The PCG-Isabela and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) of Maluso in Basilan assisted the 24 victims on Sunday for their return to their residences. They boarded the MV Ciara Joie 8 at 9:45 a.m. and were expected to dock in Zamboanga City. The DSWD of Zamboanga City will temporarily accommodate the human trafficking victims and coordinate their transportation back home.
