By now, a lot of people are sick of watching, listening to and reading about the twists and turns of the Vhong Navarro-Deniece Cornejo-Cedric Lee mauling. It’s time to tune out and pay attention to bigger issues of the day.
Rep. Sergio Apostol of Leyte’s 2nd district may not have monitored the Vhong Navarro case but here he comes with a proposal to regulate social media by imposing jail terms of six to 12 years and a fine of P30,000 to P50,000 for cyberbullies.
Apostol floated his proposal last month amid ongoing deliberations by the Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the cyber crime laws which contained among questionable provisions harsher penalties for online libel.
Apostol’s proposal merely affirms the Aquino administration’s unwelcome stance towards criticism, a position that is reinforced with its continued apathy towards the Freedom of Information bill.
But to be fair, we look at people like Ms. Cornejo, who along with Lee had been lambasted and spoofed by netizens across the country, who may or may not be avid followers of Mr. Navarro, himself not a paragon of virtue.
Should we mention names?
Actress Claudine Barreto and her husband Raymart Santiago were also subjected to an unforgiving barrage of online tirades for an airport mauling incident involving columnist Ramon Tulfo two years ago.
There’s also tobacco firm manager Robert Blair Carabuena who was caught on camera threatening and bullying a Metro Manila traffic aide who flagged him down for trying to overtake another vehicle.
The common element among all three incidents? Someone with a camera had the presence of mind to film the mauling and abuse of the victims. In Navarro’s case it was the condominium’s security cameras. The Ninoy Aquino International Airport, unfortunately, had none in the terminal where the Tulfo mauling occurred.
Footage of these abuses made their way online, which fanned public indignation and prompted netizens to issue all manner of invectives and expletives against the perpetrators, who are for the most part, rich and influential.
That public indignation also spurred national government agencies to investigate the incidents.
Now Apostol and one of the cybercrime law’s authors, Sen. Tito Sotto III, want the government to impose its will and dictate on the public by threatening them with sanctions.
Apostol should know something about restraint. He apologized to the public, specifically the Chinese community after he, as legal counsel for former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, lambasted and maligned ZTE-NBN witness Jun Lozada’s Chinese ancestry.
Now he wants to impose his own brand of discipline on the Filipino public. Talk about irony.
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