Breaking News. From interaksyon.com (online news of Channel 5) as of 1pm: SC stops Cybercrime Law by TRO.
“MANILA, Philippines – (UPDATE, 1:02 p.m.) The Supreme Court on Tuesday unanimously voted for the issuance of a temporary restraining order (TRO) stopping the enforcement of the controversial Cybercrime Prevention Act. All 14 justices were present. xxx
xxx
“The TRO was issued as the high tribunal deliberated en banc on 15 petitions from various groups and personalities from the media, lawyers’ and free-speech advocates’ sectors, all seeking a halt to implementation of the Cybercrime Prevention Act. xxx” ” – interaksyon.com
YES! Unanimous.
They read it. They know their constitutional law.
A TRO from the Supreme Court is indefinite in character. It is effective unless set aside, and it becomes permanent when the SC decides in favor of the petitioners.
(Updated as of 5:20 pm: The SC in its resolution limited the TRO to only 120 days, oral arguments set: Jan. 15, 2013. Merry Christmas!)
xxx (continuation of 1pm blog post)
Unconstitutional kayo, Senado, Konggreso, Malacañang !On your faces, er, este, on its face, the law is unconstitutional. “On its face” means just by a reading of the text.
Ipinilit pa ng Malacañang — violative of the right to be secure in one’s person, houses, papers, and effects, the right to privacy of communication and correspondence, the right against double jeopardy, the right to freedom from prior restraint, the free speech clause, etc. etc.
Mabuhay ang lahat ng netizens na pumalag at hindi pumayag sa Cybercrime Law!
(Salamat di na madilim ang blog ko)
See previous blog post, below, for context, posted five hours before issuance of TRO:
War, portents of war, and breakthroughs in war, are always elements of news — ask any news editor. Uncharacteristically, Malacañang not only released information but announced the Bangsamoro “framework agreement” in a highly publicized press con, on a slow news day, a full week ahead of its signing. They could not have chosen a better element of news — war ranks way up there in any editor’s book. And so, Malacañang knows, it thinks, this would outrank any news story or discussion on the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
When they were “out-of-power”, in 2008, the Liberal Party questioned the constitutionality of the initial Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the MILF, which provided for a future comprehensive peace pact, hammered out by Gloria’s government. They found enough adherents in the Supreme Court: By a narrow vote of 8 to 7, the Supreme Court struck down the peace agreement as “unconstitutional” – betraying everybody’s ignorance that negotiated political settlements are always outside the legal frameworks of the State-parties . Now that they are inpower, they forged a “framework agreement” honoring a “Basic Law” for the Bangsamoro. Good. Finally. I’m glad that potentially there will now be a negotiated political settlement of the armed conflict in Mindanao – the Liberal Party delayed it by four years on the argument that the proposed “Bangsamoro Juridical Entity” mentioned in the 2008 MOA required Charter Change. They, and everyone else of course, were not willing to grant that to Gloria (Cha-cha under Gloria – no way).
Don’t look at me, I’ve been consistently in favor of negotiated political settlements over war, regardless of who were in power (look at the history of this blog and previous blog posts). But look at them. It took a maelstrom of a social media frenzy over the Cybercrime Law, for an advanced announcement of a peace agreement to be made, and to go on headlong with this.
