Say Anything You Want… Except: Freedom of Speech in The Philippines

I live in the Philippines. Not exactly human rights central. Sure, we get along fine, but the moment someone in the upper echelons think you’re messing with them too much – well, let’s just say we have a huge three-digit number record for extra-judicial killings (hint: 835). Our corruption record’s also horrible. Yep, Number 131 on the Corruption Perceptions Index by Transparency International in the year 2007; and just to make it clear: Number 1 is the least corrupt. 179 is the bottom of the list. Imagine living in a place like that and then blogging about it. Screaming it out loud. I know I have rights. Section 9 of the Bill of Rights in the Philippine 1987 Constitution states, and I quote:

No law shall be passed abridging the freedom of speech, of expression, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition the government for redress of grievances.

Therefore, we are given free speech and no laws must be passed saying otherwise. That’s one of the most beautiful paragraphs in the whole document, even if I do say so myself.

So, I’m free to say things. Wonderful. But, as with everything in society, there is a limit to this freedom. Mostly so that no people are inconvenienced by people using this freedom against them. Again, another case of losing your freedom to security. Anyway, there’s this thing all bloggers are at least sometimes concerned about: libel. Now, in the US, I understand you have clearly defined rules about these sorts of things, and a few Google searches and trips to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s blogger’s rights page could get you all the info you want and need. We, on the other hand, probably also have defined rules but I can find none except for a few bits and pieces around the net. Take this one, for example, which I found in The Warrior Lawyer blog:

How is libel defined under Philippine laws? Article 353 of the Revised Penal Code defines libel as “a public and malicious imputation of a crime, or of a vice or defect, real or imaginary, or any act, omission, condition, status or circumstance tending to cause the dishonor, discredit or contempt of a natural or juridical person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead”

For an imputation then to be libelous, the following requisites must concur: (a) it must be defamatory; (b) it must be malicious; (c) it must be given publicity; and (d) the victim must be identifiable.”

Even if something is real, as long as it causes “dishonor, discredit or contempt”, it can be considered libel. Abso – fucking – lutely brilliant. Not only that but even if the person you’ve libeled (never knew that was a verb too) has already died, you can still be sued. Remind me never to make Marcos jokes.

There are, however, various criteria as to what constitutes as a libelous statement in Philippine jurisdiction. It says that it must be defamatory (and I do that a lot), it must be malicious (which I certainly am), it must be given publicity (a blog sure is public) and the victim must be identifiable (they sure as hell are). In this context, therefore, I am fucked.

Fucked? You may be saying. Fucked? Yes! FUCKED! We watch so much US shows that we just don’t realize how intolerant our country is. Case in point: last September 7, Mark Verzo of Thoughts in Binary and creator of Bembang! (I won’t be shocked if you have no idea what these websites are – they’re Filipino and I’ve only heard of them now) was arrested on Pornography Distribution charges. You know why? Because he was also the dude who created the ever-so-free Boybastos.com. That’s right. Never knew you’re not supposed to distribute porn, did you? Free motherfucking speech! (I’m getting angry). If he fucking wants to express himself in naked pictures and people copulating, does the government need to inter – fucking – fere? Now, Mister Verzo was released later that day after being fingerprinted because the numb nuts in the NBI missed the fact that there are no laws against internet pornography in this lovely supposedly free country. (And for the record, the National Bureau of Investigation does not actually have numb nut employees and is in fact a fairly efficient branch of our executive government.) How’s that for dodging libel? Anyway, that little freedom to have internet porn on your computer is going to be compromised now too because of the lovely Senator Loren Legarda. Her new Senate Bill 1375: the Anti-Computer Pornography Act (I would rather call it the First-Step-To-Legislating-The-End-Of-Free-Speech Bill) should provide sanctions for the above freedom such as six – yes, you read that right: SIX) years in prison and a 500,000 peso fine. All that suffering just because you showed the Filipino public some tits.

This is atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. What kind of “democracy” doesn’t allow its citizens to have very basic rights such as the right to say whatever the fuck they want? A flawed one, that’s what. We’re not a democracy. We parade as one, but we’re not. As fellow blogger Basapa said:

I was exasperated, because no matter how much they deny it, everyone knows that in the Philippines, even if you don’t sleep in the Government-Church bed, you’re still fucked. Loren Legarda’s arrest of Mark Verzo was a warning shot: the sordid theocratic affair between the government and the church have the collective power to control what you say, those who do not agree with them will pay dearly.

I agree. We are living in not a democratic country but a theocratic country. We are forced to follow morals supposedly brought upon us by the same God who killed dozens of first-born Egyptian children. And we are forced not just by coercion, but by law. We have to follow even if we disagree, even if it’s against what we believe is ethically and morally correct. We’re being herded like cows. It disgusts me. I’d rather stare at shit for an hour than fully ingest the implications of this issue. We are neither robots nor plants. They cannot control us. We are a democracy and we should be governing ourselves. We should talk for the country, not some lame-ass politicians who impose their wills on us. We are supposed to be free! Law is supposed to help us live easier, happier and better – not bind us.

Talking will always hurt sometimes, and if it does, they other can easily talk back. It doesn’t kill, and there are enough opinions for everybody. Just because some stupid fucks get offended, does that mean we have to restrain our freedom? Someone will always be offended. Always. As long as there are opinions, there will always be conflicting ones. Should we legislate a law forbidding us to talk now too so no opinions could go around? Fuck, let’s just be fascist and be done with it, shall we?

We, the people, are free. Article 19 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

As far as I can see, we’re all human here. Therefore, I have this right. You have this right. Mister Verzo has this right. No one can ever take that away, with or without the constitution or the Universal Declaration or whatever. If nature intended us to not clash once in a while, then we wouldn’t have been given such large brains. It’s not so hard to change websites. If you don’t want to see one of them, if you disagree, then it’s just as easy to switch to another one, it would be stupid and impractical to tear one down just because some of us are conservative bastards. If we tear something down just because a few of us disagree, then we might as well just lie down, be still, and wait for death.

Okay, now, do me a favor. Tell me what you think. Express yourself. Do you agree? Disagree? Is my argument flawed? Go ahead. I won’t mess with you. Use your freedom quick – before the government takes it away from you.