THE National Telecommunications Commission violated its own rules of procedure when it failed to observe due process in blocking websites due to their supposed links to the communist group, former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Domingo Egon Cayosa said yesterday.
In an interview over ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo, Cayosa said the NTC should have given organizations the chance to respond and even oppose the request of National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon to restrict access to their websites linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New Peoples Army, and the National Democratic Front.
He said 2006 Rules of Procedure of the NTC gives the aggrieved party the chance to answer a complaint against it. He said the NTC should have given the websites the chance to answer or oppose Esperon’s request.
He said this is more so since Esperon only wrote a letter request to the NTC and not a formal complaint.
He said it is only after the subject of the complaint is given due process that the NTC may issue a decision or order.
“Ang nangyari kasi within two days from – letter request lang ito — biglang nag-order silang i-block immediately yung mga website (What happened is within two days from — this is just a letter request — the NTC suddenly issued an order immediately blocking their websites),” Cayosa said.
Cayosa also questioned the basis for the letter request, saying the NTC as a quasi-judicial body should have thoroughly examined evidence before restricting access to the websites.
He likewise asked why only NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordova signed the memorandum restricting access to the websites, when the NTC’s own rule clearly states all orders, resolutions, or decisions shall be signed by the majority of commissioners.”
The NTC has three commissioners — Cordova and Deputy Commissioners Delilah Deles and Edgardo Cabarios.
In asking the NTC to block the 27 websites, Esperon cited previous resolutions of the Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) designating the communist movement and some of its alleged members as terrorists.
Designation is a unilateral act on the part of the ATC.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said several months ago that a person’s or group’s designation as terrorist under Republic Act 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 does not automatically mean impending arrest but the “freezing of bank accounts and other financial assets of the designated person or entity.”
