Online crackdown

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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