"This means if I text my friends that a certain candidate is a 'cheap, second-rate, trying hard copycat,' that person can haul me to court for violating the cybercrime law and have me locked up for 10 years," Casiño said.
Together with Kabataan party-list Representative Raymond Palatino, Casiño earlier filed House Bill 6631 to repeal several provisions of RA 10175.
"Para talagang pang-Martial law ang batas na ito at binubusalan tayo sa mga gusto nating sabihin sa pamamagitan ng internet at telepono. May kinalaman kaya ito sa nalalapit na eleksyon para di mabanatan ang mga kandidato? (This new law is like Martial Law since it prevents us from saying what we wanted to say on the internet and over the phone. Maybe the forthcoming elections have something to do with it?)," asked Casiño.
The three-term party-list lawmaker is also eyeing a Senate seat in the 2013 elections. He is running under the Makabayan Coalition.
Tarlac Representative Susan Yap, one of the authors of the House version on the anti-cybercrime measure, earlier defended RA 10175, saying the individual right to privacy and the right to freedom of expression albeit constitutional rights are not absolute.
Yap said these constitutional rights should always be tempered by the general welfare and co-existing rights of the many.
"I shall stand by my belief that we, in both Houses of Congress, have done our roles earnestly and faithfully to bring about the passage of this law so drastically material and necessary for the progress and development of our country, both economically and politically," she said.
Supreme Court justices will meet Tuesday to discuss and decide if the 15 petitions that have been filed so far against the further implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act will be given merit.
En banc sessions of the High Court are normally conducted at 10 a.m. although it remains to be seen if the Court will release an update just like last week, when the 10 justices present decided to defer the deliberations.
Bayan Muna party-list Representatives Neri Colmenares and Casiño, the Philippine Internet Freedom Alliance (Pifa) and the National Press Club joined on Monday the chorus of journalists, bloggers, militant lawmakers, and concerned citizens in calling for the junking of some sections of the law, which took effect last October 3.
Echoing the arguments of other petitioners, Colmenares said some provisions should be declared unconstitutional because these allegedly violated the freedom of expression, due process, equal protection, the right to privacy and correspondence, and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures within the meaning of constitutional doctrine.
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