CYBERLIBEL cases are flooding the courts.
This is according to Justice Undersecretary Jesse Hermogenes Andres who has been underscoring the need to unclog court dockets.
Cyberlibel cases, according to the Philippine National Police Anti-Cybercrime Group, rose to 1,458 I 2024 from 1,403 in 2023. The DOJ website shows cases climbing from 59 in 2016 to 543 in 2018.
It is extremely easy to commit cyberlibel. All one needs is a phone that will connect to popular messaging apps that have “zero-rated data” plans which offer free access to certain online services. The most common is Messenger which is extremely easy to use.
But there lies the trap. Posting a funny (or insulting) message to a group chat opens one to a charge of cyberlibel.
Recently, one journalist in Mindanao went behind bars for cyberlibel over a “broadcast” on his Facebook account. Which leads us to another reality: one can now broadcast from an inexpensive “studio” without the need for infrastructure-dependent, radio frequency-based transmitters.
‘… one can help unclog the court dockets by following an old advice: Think twice before you click. To which we might add, Angry? Don’t send.’
While we do not wish to discuss the merits of the case, the reporter’s time in jail could have been averted through mediation.
In 2023, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla issued a department circular mandating mediation in the National Capital Region for cases involving libel and cyberlibel, among others. The circular limits the mediation to the civil aspect of defamation, consistent with RA 9285, or “An act to institutionalize the use of an alternative dispute resolution system in the Philippines and to establish the office for alternative dispute resolution and for other purposes.”
The DOJ circular is for pilot implementation of the 2023 Rules of Mediation in the National Prosecutorial Services. Undersecretary Andres said the justice department will roll out ADR training for prosecutors throughout the country.
At the 21st anniversary of the enactment of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) law on Monday, Undersecretary Andres said the Office of Alternative Dispute Resolution (OADR) has trained 200 prosecutors in Metro Manila, giving reason to believe that “we can successfully resolve cases even before the conduct of the preliminary investigation proper.”
In this regard, we note the efforts of the Philippine Press Institute (of which Malaya Business Insight is a member) for successfully holding last year a week-long, 60-hour course under the OADR for 40 members of 11 media-citizen councils nationwide, some of them regional, others provincial and a few urban. As a result, the OADR is set to accredit the PPI as an ADR provider, specifically for cyberlibel cases involving journalists in communities where they exist.
The PPI hopes to set up more such councils soon, and have their representatives also undergo ADR training.
Meanwhile, one can help unclog the court dockets by following an old advice: Think twice before you click. To which we might add, Angry? Don’t send.
