Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 focuses
on the pre-emption, prevention, and prosecution
of cybercrimes such as offenses against the privacy,
confidentiality, integrity, and availability of computer
data and systems, computer-related offenses, and
content-related offenses.
EFFECTS OF CYBERCRIME IN THE PHILIPPINES
I. Negative Effects of the Cybercrime Prevention Act
Computers have become an essential part in a person’s life. Those
gadgets, along with the internet, have enabled men to overcome distances.
They allow people to communicate with each other even if they are a
thousand miles apart. Those two have also become vital instruments in
sharing information to the public. With the computer and the internet
becoming useful tools to numerous aspects, the Cybercrime Prevention Act
became quite a hot topic when it was first made known to the public.
Numerous responses came from the Filipino citizens. People quickly took
action to stop this bill from being approved due to its negative effects.
Although the Cybercrime Prevention Act has positive effects, it also
has a number of negative effects which made people disapprove the passing
of that bill. The first is that it criminalizes the act of posting statements that
destroy a person, most especially a government official’s reputation, in
websites like Twitter or Facebook. That is considered libel and it does not
matter if one is speaking the truth or not. Second, would be under Section 19
of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, which stated that “when a computer data is
prima facie found to be in violation of the provisions of this Act, the
Department of Justice (DOJ) shall issue an order to restrict or block access to
such computer.” That means due process is no longer required and the DOJ
can proceed and force a person to discontinue publishing his/her posts.
Lastly, if the law is put into effect, there will be severe penalties. Getting
caught for online libel can get a person a maximum of 12 years in prison and
a fine with a maximum of Php 1, 000, 000.
II. Advantages of the Cybercrime Prevention Act
As mentioned earlier, there are also advantages of the Cybercrime
Prevention Act to us Filipino “netizens” especially for the Facebook and/or
Twitter users, bloggers and journalists who in the first place is really affected
by this law. Under Section 2 of the said act, “The State recognizes the
increasingly vital role of information and communications technology (ICT) as
enablers of key industries such as, banking, broadcasting, business process
outsourcing, electronic commerce and telecommunications, and as a driving
force for the nation’s overall social and economic development.” It will also
