Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom

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Bill citation
  
Senate Bill No. 53, Senate Bill No. 1091, House Bill No. 1086

Introduced by
  
Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV, Representative Kimi Cojuangco

The Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom (abbreviated as #MCPIF) is an internet law bill filed in the Philippine legislature. The bill contains provisions promoting civil and political rights and Constitutional guarantees for Philippine internet users, such as freedom of expression, as well as provisions on information and communications technology policy, ICT4D, internet governance, e-governance, cybersecurity, cyberwarfare, cyberterrorism, and cybercrime.

Contents

The Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom was proposed as an alternative to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 whose enactment was met with mixed reactions. Proponents of the bill claim that the #MCPIF is the first crowdsourced bill in the Philippines.

Background

In response to the signing into law by President Benigno S. Aquino III of Republic Act No. 10175, a group of Filipino lawyers, bloggers, technology experts, and human rights advocates called Democracy.Net.PH spearheaded a crowdsourcing initiative towards the drafting of a law intended to replace it. The proposed Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom was then filed as Senate Bill No. 3327 by Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on November 12, 2012. The bill remained pending in committee until the 15th Congress adjourned on June 6, 2013.

In the 16th Congress, Senator Santiago re-filed the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom in the Senate as Senate Bill No. 53 on July 1, 2013. On July 4, 2013, Representative Kimi Cojuangco of the 5th District of Pangasinan filed a counterpart bill in the House of Representatives as House Bill No. 1086. The bill has passed first reading in both chambers of the Philippine legislature.

On July 24, 2013, Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV filed a version of the #MCPIF, "enhanced with a 'Free WiFi' provision" as Senate Bill No. 1091.

Provisions

The bill is divided into ten parts and contains 85 sections.

  • Part 1, “General Provisions,” contains the policy framework of the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom.
  • Part 2, “Definition of Terms,” states that, when possible, definitions of terms used in the bill shall be adopted from those established by the International Telecommunications Union, the Internet Engineering Task Force, the World Wide Web Consortium, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, and other relevant organizations.
  • Part 3, “Internet Rights and Freedoms” codifies a Bill of Rights for Filipino internet users. Among the provisions are sections banning internet censorship and data discrimination, and sections promoting data privacy, data security, information security, net neutrality, and freedom of information. Due process clauses are included in these provisions.
  • Part 4 “The Department of Information and Communications Technology” establishes an executive department for purposes of Philippine information and communications technology policy, ICT4D, internet governance, and e-governance.
  • Part 5 “Regulations for the Promotion of Internet Rights and Freedoms” reiterates the compliance of the Philippines to treaties and international conventions to which it is a signatory, defines duties of state agencies and instrumentalities, provides amendments of existing telecommunications, intellectual property, data privacy, and e-commerce laws, and provides explicitly for the repeal of the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
  • Part 6 “Cybercrimes and Other Prohibited Acts”, Part 7 “National Cybersecurity, Cyberdefense, Counter-Cyberterrorism, and Counter-Cyberespionage”, and Part 8 “Penalties” define Philippine cybercrimes and penalties, competent law enforcement agencies, special cybercrime courts and their jurisdictions, and cybersecurity and counter-cyberterrorism policy. Child pornography, child abuse, hate speech, cyberespionage, cyberterrorism, terrorism financing, trafficking in persons, child prostitution, phishing, cybersquatting, and intellectual property infringement are among the crimes defined. Crimes committed against critical infrastructure are provided a higher class of penalties. Double jeopardy is forbidden explicitly in Section 64 of the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom.
  • Part 9 “Implementing Rules and Regulations” and Part 10 “Final Provisions” detail the implementation of the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom.

    • Reactions

    The Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom has been generally viewed locally and internationally as a welcome development in promoting civil and political rights on the internet. Columnist Conrado de Quiros of the Philippine Daily Inquirer acknowledged Senator Defensor-Santiago, writing “Miriam in fact may not just have done the netizens—in great part the youth—a favor, she may just have done government a favor.” Jillian York, Director for International Freedom of Expression of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, commented that “Overall, the crowdsourced Act is a success story and we support our allies in the Philippines as they work to push it forward in the Senate.” Criticism about the possibility of double jeopardy for libel, which was one of the bases for the constitutional challenges made against the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, was later clarified by the bill’s proponents. Women's rights advocate and Manila Standard Today columnist Elizabeth Angsioco commented after an apparent attack on the online version of the newspaper, "I am reminded of the bill Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom and its provisions pertaining to: people’s rights online, freedom of expression, strengthening ICT infrastructures, and cyber crimes. With these cyberattacks against MST, I am more convinced that Congress should pass MCPIF.". The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility took note that Section 4 of the #MCPIF protects and promotes freedom of speech and expression on the Internet and protects the right of the people to petition the government via the Internet for redress of grievances, and that Section 52 defines provisions and exceptions on Internet libel, highlighting that the #MCPIF states that expressions of protest against and dissatisfaction with the government shall not constitute Internet libel. The Sunlight Foundation also noted that the Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom, "among other things, strengthens the right of free expression, aspires towards universal internet access, and protects users’ privacy."

    References

    Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA