BY ASHZEL HACHERO and RAYMOND AFRICA
FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. yesterday called on Senate President Vicente Sotto III to work for the decriminalization of libel.
Locsin said the monetary fine imposed by the court is more than enough punishment in libel cases.
“Let’s decriminalize libel, Senate President Sotto. The money damages alone are far, far, far, far more painful,” Locsin, who is a former journalist, said in a tweet on Thursday.
Libel is punishable with prison terms ranging from six months to six years and a fine under the Revised Penal Code.
Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 has included libel committed through the use of the internet.
In response, Sotto tweeted: “I wish that was easy. Grandpa was the author of the 1946 Press Freedom Law. Unfortunately, lying (libel) is found in the Ten Commandments.”
Sotto was referring to the late Sen. Vicente Yap Sotto, his grandfather who authored the 1946 law that made libel a criminal act.
When asked to expound, Sotto said in a text message to reporters: “Bearing false witness against thy number is a higher law from God than any other law of man. (The) Ten Commandments cannot be amended. Lying in court is perjury. Lying in congressional investigations can lead to detention. Otherwise, what will happen? Even bouncing check is a kind of lying that can mean imprisonment. Do we decriminalize all these?”
Locsin replied to Sotto: “Well yes, but bankruptcy hurts more. Besides, El 10 Commandments is self-enforcing if you live in the area of its promulgation. If the transgression is awful, a bolt of lightning flies out from El Finger in the clouds around the peak of Mount Sinai.”
Locsin stopped short of pressing Sotto to change his mind, as he conceded that the decision was up to the Senate leader.
“Well, anyway, you’re the best Senate President in the history of the Republic and I am old enough to tell you as an eyewitness. Especially in the crisis circumstance in which you’ve found yourself as Senate President,” Locsin said.
The exchange of tweets between Locsin and Sotto came days after a Manila trial court handed a guilty verdict on Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos over a cyber libel complaint filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng.
Keng’s case was filed in connection with an article published in 2012 that alleged he lent his sports utility vehicle to impeached chief justice Renato Corona. The article also alleged that the businessman was involved in human and drug trafficking, citing intelligence reports.
Keng denied the allegations.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines and other media organizations have been calling for the decriminalization of libel saying it has been used as a weapon against journalists who seek to hold public officials accountable to the public with their reporting.
