MANILA, Philippines - Another petition against the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was filed before the Supreme Court on Friday. In a 41-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, petitioners Alexander Adonis and Ellen Tordesillas, Gisela Cascolan, lawyers Harry Roque, Rommel Bagares and Gilbert Andres asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order or a writ of prohibitory injunction against the implementation of the new cybercrime law. They said the new law should be declared as "unconstitutional" because it violates the people's fundamental rights guaranteed by the Constitution. The group questioned particularly Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, and 19 of the cybercime law which they claim violate the right of freedom of speech and of expression, the right against "double jeopardy", and the separation of powers because of the delegation of one that is considered as a "judicial function" to the Dept. of Justice. They further argued that under the existing law, only the judges have the power and authority to order the banning or blocking of access to a computer data. The petitioners also cited the alleged unreasonable increase in the penalty that will be imposed on "cyber libel" which reaches to 12 years imprisonment as compared to an ordinary libel case which is penalized with four years' imprisonment. Sen. Teofisto Guingona III on Thursday also petitioned the high court to declare several provisions of the new cybercrime law, including the provision in online libel. The others who have filed petitions against the new law signed by President Aquino last September 12 were University of the Philippines law professor JJ Disini, businessman Louis Biraogo and ALAM party-list.
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