February 25, 2014 marks the 28th year
commemoration of the first EDSA People Power Revolution. Incidentally, netizens
are also urging everyone to participate in an alternate propaganda instead and
that is for Black Tuesday in order to protest online libel. Which will you
choose to support?
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| from thenutbox.wordpress.com |
Unfortunately for me, I’m on a school trip. However, my
thoughts are one with Internet citizens who are clamoring for a change against
the new online libel law, yes, even if it’s already decided by the Supreme
Court.
I do understand the essence of EDSA 1. I’ve probably
cried every year watching documentaries about it since elementary school days.
But today, after EDSA dos and tres, I no longer believe in what the first EDSA
revolution fought for. After all, the Philippines can even be considered on a
regression instead of a progression with all the political controversies including
the PDAF scam on the news these days. Frankly, this country was more
economically developed during the time of Marcos as compared to today. It’s now
left behind by other Southeast Asian nations when this nation used to be more progressive
than them. Supposedly, it is because there are more corrupt officials nowadays
than during the Marcos regime simply because it was allegedly only the Marcoses
who were corrupt (note, I only said ‘allegedly’ :) at that time. But today,
corruption seems to be (note again, I said ‘seems to be’) present in all
sectors, bureaus, and hierarchy of the government. See? I can’t even utter an
affirmative statement without worrying about online libel! ;) How is that for
suppression of the human right for expression?
In relation to online libel, many had resorted to name calling
the author of this law, Sen. Tito Sotto and as always, our proclaimed heroine
Sen. Miriam Santiago is to the rescue. Although the respective Sen. Sotto belied
any accusation that he authored the law to vindicate himself from bloggers who criticized
him for his supposedly plagiarized speech, we cannot be assured enough that the
law isn’t intended against those who make a habit of regularly criticizing the
government in general or specific officials at that. Thus, many of us side by
Sen. Santiago instead and everyone who believes that this law prohibits
everyone online from merely expressing their opinions especially since we all
love doing so. We become instant lawyers, litigators, police investigators,
scientific experts, debaters, commentators, reporters, analysts, and what not,
all in the name of argument all over social media sites.
So my fellow netizens, I urge you to support the protest
against anti-online libel instead. Period. :D
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