THE Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the House of Representatives to answer the petition filed by a group of vloggers and social media personalities seeking to stop lawmakers from compelling them to attend the inquiry on fake news and disinformation.
The SC en banc, in a resolution dated February 11, directed Speaker Martin Romualdez, and Reps. Ace Barbers, Dan Fernandez, Tobias Tiangco and Jose Aquino II to answer the petition “within a non-extendible period of 15 days from receipt of the order.”
The House probe is being conducted by the Joint Committees on Public Order and Safety, Information and Communications Technology, and Public Information.
The petition was filed by Ernesto Abines Jr., lawyer Glenn Chong, Mark Anthony Lopez, Mary Jean Reyes, Dr. Richard Mata, Mary Catherine Diaz Binag, Ethel Pineda Garcia, Krizette Laureta Chu, Jonathan Morales, Lorraine Marie Badoy-Partosa, lawyer and former Presidential Communications Operations Office Rose Beatriz Cruz-Angeles, Aeron Pena, Nelson Guzmanos, Elizabeth Joie Cruz, Suzanne Batalla, Kester John Tan and lawyer George Ahmed Pagkalinawan.
In their petition for certiorari and prohibition with urgent prayer for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and writ of preliminary injunction, the petitioners said the House inquiry violates their constitutional rights to free speech, expression, and press freedom.
The petition was filed after the House joint committee issued multiple show cause orders to several vloggers, including Angeles, Cruz, Lopez, and Mata, among others, to appear and testify in the probe on online disinformation.
In their plea, the petitioners claimed the hearings, spurred by a privilege speech of Barbers in December last year, are politically motivated and designed to silence dissenting voices.
To recall, Barbers in his privilege speeches took to task the vloggers and trolls for allegedly spreading disinformation and fake news in social media in relation to the probe of the quad committee on extrajudicial killings related to the drug war of the Duterte administration and the operation of illegal Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs).
The petitioners appealed to the SC to stop the House from forcing them to attend the hearings, saying that the probe “is unconstitutional as it imposes prior restraint on free speech and creates a chilling effect on content creators.”
They also said that regulating social media content through legislation violates the constitutional prohibition against laws abridging freedom of speech and expression.
