When Your Government Is Clueless
Saturday
Sep 8, 2007
The Boy Bastos issue:
* A bugged life
* Bayanihan Blogs
* GMA News
* The Senate press release
It’s obviously just a case of clashing personalities. I doubt if there will be any basis to charging Mr. Boy Bastos in our legal courts, aside from the potentially libelous inclusion of a certain senator’s name on the boybastos.com domain registration info.
I also doubt Mr. Mark Verzo himself produces the pornographic content on his website. And in all likelihood, his web host is located off-shore (in US soil, perhaps?). So does the Philippine legal system have jurisdiction? I’m not sure. I haven’t checked the e-commerce act lately. But I would think that references to geographic location of data would be murky at best. We are, after all, still in the stone age of information technology.
(Why Stone Age? Think of the ZTE broadband deal. Incidentally, having worked in government for three years, I’m aware that the current administration has “fast-tracked” some deals with the Chinese government for some ODA projects. So that means even with government checks and balances, it only takes just a word from the higher-ups to get people to “approve” projects. So gov’t reviews and negotiations just become ministerial, in effect.).
It’s the intarwebs people! Web 2.0! User-submitted content. I wonder what the authorities will book Mr. Verzo with. And I wonder why they had to confiscate equipment (maybe they can charge him with running pirated software?).
Remember the Netopia lobby to censor the Internet? What about the congressman who blamed porn proliferation on 3G and broadband?
We need new blood in government. Maybe I’ll run in the next elections.
Update: Second thoughts on Boy Bastos (and Why Government needs people like us).
J. Angelo Racoma is a technology journalist and blogger. See more of his blog posts here at racoma.com.ph, commentaries at racoma.net, and Twitter feed at @jangelo.
Comments
ia
September 8th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
US: 2-tiered net approved.
China: Death Note and other similar material banned.
See, it’s not just our country that’s got monkeys holding office.
Rico
September 8th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
You can count on my vote, once you come up with a clear net platform (which I’m sure you’ll have no problems doing).
Jhay
September 8th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Woot! J Angelo for Congressman? Why the heck not!
J. Angelo Racoma
September 8th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
The Senate has a wider constituency.
J. Angelo Racoma
September 8th, 2007 at 11:25 pm
Dammit, I won’t be 35 until 2015. That means I’m not qualified for the Senate before then.
Congress, perhaps? Maybe probloggers and other Internet-based workers can come up with a party-list. (Are we considered marginalized? Are we considered a professional sector?)
noemi
September 9th, 2007 at 5:47 pm
There are existing laws that cover the allegedly pornographic violations. See this entry : http://thewarriorlawyer.com/2007/09/09/freedom-of-expression-boybastoscom/
About jurisdiction, I learned as a webhost that even if the server is located outside the Philippines, the datacenter can shut down the site upon presentation of a court order. Webhosts in their TOS, can always shut down a site upon their discretion. No datacenter or webhost would want to be caught in a legal tussle.
SexyMom
September 10th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
party list is a good idea–i have been telling Yuga about that since a few months back.
Janette Toral
September 11th, 2007 at 10:11 am
Hi Angelo. Unfortunately, the blogging community and the I.T. community is not a marginalized sector. That is why many IT associations have not succeeded in their attempts to form a party list.
Mike Abundo
September 11th, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Run. I’d vote for you.
the jester-in-exile
September 13th, 2007 at 12:45 am
i find myself in disagreement with janette — the blogging/IT community seems to me rather marginalized in terms of the law. there are to my mind a lot of issues where pinoy cyberdenizens need both regulation and protection through laws — freedom of expression and association, the protection of civil and political rights, the emerging cybereconomy…
of course, with las islas filipinas not being completely plugged in, this isn’t a top-priority issue (except for we who ARE plugged in).
two cents and change.