Team Patay (Dead), Team Buhay (Alive), A Blatant Violation Of Election Law

As controversial as Justin Beiber puking onstage is the Team Patay, Team Buhay poster made by the Archdiocese of Bacolod influencing subordinates to vote or not vote election candidates who were against or supportive of the recently passed RH Bill.

As reasonable as it may seemed since we're living in a democratic state and had a freedom of speech as part of our constitutional rights, the deed is in violation of Article XXII, Section 261, Paragraph (d)(1), of the Omnibus Election Code, as an act of Coercion of Subordinates. Coercion occurs when any public or private corporation or association, or any head, superior, or administrator of any religious organization, or any employer or land-owner who coerces or intimidates or compels, or in any manner influence, directly or indirectly, any of his subordinates or members or parishioners or employees or house helpers, tenants, overseers, farm helpers, tillers, or lease holders to aid, campaign or vote for or against any candidate or any aspirant for the nomination or selection of candidates.

Aside from this our Philippine Constitution clearly distinguished the separation of church and state thus the church in prohibited from mingling to the affairs of the state.

Well, yes, I'm Pro-Life myself and against the RH Bill,  but the Archdiocese of Bacolod went too far on the matter. Being the spiritual councilors of people, they should be the forefront in identifying what is lawfully and morally right, encourage people to live with it, and discourage disobedience.

Anyways, Tthe COMELEC is giving them ample time to take the poster off so they better conform. They could either respect the Law or taste its wretched.

Comments welcome.

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Dangers Ahead Of The Philippine Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012

You might have heard over the news about groups of media practitioners and bloggers opposing the newly passed cybercrime law. Well, they have all the reason to stand against it and since I'm also a small time (to the 100th power) blogger myself, my sentiments goes out the organizations who cared about freedom of speech, of expression or of the the press in this corrupt stricken country.

Generally, the law has a good intention because it protects the public from cyber crimes that lurks around the vast and dangerous web space, but at the same time, without any regard to human rights, they inserted a provision about Libel on Section 4 (c)(3) which could now be committed though a computer system or any similar means which may be devised in the future. This is where the danger lays for media practitioners, bloggers and everyone in totality with a very nasty penalty once violated.

Libel on the Revised Penal code is defined 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 dishonor, discredit, or contempt of a natural or judicial person, or to blacken the memory of one who is dead. From this definition on Article 353 of the aforementioned code, it will seemed like nobody will be allowed to say something anymore about a certain person or company since it might be imputed as a dishonor, discredit or contempt by the other party. People doesn't have the freedom of expression anymore and for media personalities and bloggers, both freedom of expression and the press. We will all be incapacitated to criticize anyone or any company. People will just have to play mute, deaf and blind of the happenings around them.

And who do you think will gain from all this human right restrictions, yup, you guess it right, the Congressmen and Senators who approved the bill, the very people who wants to protect their vested political interest against web or computer published criticisms of their corrupt practices. Did you hear any opposition from politicians when they created this bill few months ago? Nope, only now when the bill was brought to public knowledge.

But should everyone really be afraid of this particular law? A big no of course in terms of Libel, its just a provision put into law that "cannot" outweigh the Constitutional Rights of a person which are the baseline of all laws currently enacted. No laws, rules or regulations can defeat any of the basic rights of a person on matters of  freedom of speech, of expression or of the the press. Constitution will always prevail.

What I'm just against here is the blatant and implied violation of the aforementioned right made by imbecile politicians. They should have asked constitutionalists first before passing the bill into law or had waited for the decision of the Supreme Court on the matter because in the end, it might just be invalidated or dubbed unconstitutional.

This imbecile politicians just want to protect themselves, hide their acts and silence the Filipino people who cares for their country.

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Law 101: Prostitution and Gender Bias

There is no such thing as Male Prostitute, thats according to the Revise Penal Code of the Philippines which specifically defines that Prostitutes are "women" who, for money or profit, habitually indulge in sexual intercourse or lascivious act. Penalty is aresto menor or fine not exceeding 200 pesos and in case of recidivism, by aresto mayor in its medium period to prision correcccional in its minimum period or fine ranging from 200 to 2,000 pesos, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Unfair of course to the well loved gender of our society and advantageous to the other but its just one of the many laws in the country that pegs women's inferiority. Nobody can be blamed for this except Filipino culture and tradition but we must not also be complacent about it because our modern times dictates equality for both gender.

The first women president in the world is a Filipino, the mother of our current president Benigno Simeon Aquino, and another women already came to power, its high time for us to update all this laws and embrace reality. Not to mention of course was the fines mentioned on law, 200 pesos is just so cheap for a serious and punishable crime, offenders will just shrug it off there sleeve because they can pay it easily nor serve the imprisonment of 1 Month and 1 day to 6 months. The revised law must stipulate gender equality adding male on the description, higher monetary fines and longer imprisonment to discourage current and future offenders.

There had been moves at the moment to amend the laws and the constitutions itself, let us be open minded with the move, support it and not let to much politicking hinder changed. We need this now more than ever!

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Law 101: The best way to remarry legally! Part 2

We have talk about the best and the fastest option that allows you to remarry legally (Click Here) under the Philippine Law but it has a catch and its not as fun and you think it is.

Then again, I have to mention in here that the our Law is not divorce friendly unlike the rest of the world, so the Presumption of death is limited in terms of applicability and coverage unlike divorce or annulment. You might also ask the difference between the two but lets dwell into that next time because both subjects are complicated and need a thorough discussion.

Going back to the topic, the Presumption of death is very much dependent on circumstances most specifically on your previous partners condition. Granted that you were issued a judicial decree allowing you to remarry again, the said decree will become null and void if your partner resurfaces. This would mean that your current marriage will be ineffective and dissolved respecting the rights of your original spouse rather than the current.

In this option, you will have to learn the value of prayer that your presumption of your previous spouse is real for your current marriage to be effective for the rest of your life. Call that scourge!

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Law 101: The best way to remarry legally!

Are you sick and tired of your husband or wife, or have you found someone more special that you've decided to dump your legal spouse because its not working anymore no matter how you both tried.

It's definitely not easy if your living in the Philippines because we don't have divorce law here and we are the only country in the world left that doesn't recognize such being a solid Catholic country. Well, I'm also a devoted Catholic so I'm very much against divorce but their are special circumstances that needs special consideration that's why I'm writing a posts about it.

But before doing so, I have to give you an idea on how much you need to spend for the said proceeding. You need to have at least PhP200 Thousand more or less depending on the lawyer, the more refutable the lawyer is, the more expensive it becomes.

So back to the topic, what is the best way to remarry the easiest way possible? By filling a Presumption of Death of your spouse in court!

Its the easiest way because it will only take a minimum of 3 hearings in court and after the court's verdict, you will be as good as single again! But of course it has requisites that you need to comply in order to be accorded for such, first you must not have a communication whatsoever with your spouse for the past 4 years by all means possible. This would mean no text exchanges, no calls, no DM on Facebook or no reply in Twitter, it must be a total seclusion. Then second, you must do this with true intent, because the only way for this legal action to fail is when the court can establish a collusion between the parties involve, meaning, you've talk and agreed about it. It must be a total non-communication of both party, per say.

But of course this is not as good as annulment or divorce, it has limitations which I will discuss next time. What matters here is that you can remarry again legally to your new found love without criminal liability.

(And this post is specially dedicated to Kuya Jogas!)

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Law 101: Freedom Of Speech

I'm pretty sure you've heard about it having been commonly uttered on television by newscasters or media man as a backdrop of there occupation, well, this is in fact a right for everyone to enjoy transgressing nationality or race but as mentioned on out previous Law 101 topic, we could very much be liable for it in certain levels.

The question now is, when can we be legally liable?

As simple as saying a hoar to someone can get you an oral defamation case punishable by fines or worst imprisonment depending on the gravity of the situation. Calling a certain politician, for example, Gloria Arroyo, the most corrupt Philippine politician in the modern times can earn you a libel case no matter how true it is.

In other words, if you destroy or damage someones refutation on personal degree, you could be held liable wither you like it or not. Its very important for everyone to know in here that Freedom of Speech has its limitation,we have to be at all times, mindful of everything we spoke or wrote because we are bind to it.

The next question would be, in what way could we avoid violation at the same time enjoy the right of Freedom of Speech? Do not specify anyone directly when you attack them, say in our example, do not mentioned Gloria Arroyo on your speech or on writing instead mention a semblance, like the mole president, the clothes washer president, etc., it will save your butts off.

So there you go, the Freedom of Speech. Go mock anyone now! Fast!

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Law 101: Twitter and Facebook Messages As Evidences In Court

So time for the very first feature on Law 101 that we, the people in the social multiverse could relate like Twitter, Facebook among other social networking site to have and will ever exist, can users be civilly or criminally liable for the messages we create or post on these sites?

Have you remember the libel case filed by Bulacan Mayor Patrick Menesis against Philippine actress and former Quezon City councilor Aiko Melendez? Its currently on going with Twitter messages as the basis of such case. Interesting isn't it? Well read on to find out.

Under the Bill of Rights, Article 3, Section 3 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution, the privacy of communication and correspondence shall be inviolable except upon lawful order of the court, or when public safety or order requires otherwise as prescribe by law. Any evidence obtained of this or the preceding section shall be inadmissible for any purpose in any proceeding.

I know its quite bloody to understand as the article is subject to different interpretation but it simply says that communication between two person or group of people should be private and it should not be use as evidence in court.

But lets dig in dipper to the case, Twitter and Facebook have feature called Timeline for Twitter and Wall for Facebook which allows users to post one for the social network community to read, and it also have private messages which is only intended to the people you communicated with. If users posted on the Timeline or on the Facebook wall, then it could be subject to libel, if its on the messaging feature then its not.

As I've learn, what happened to the Melendez case was that the evidence gathered was the messaging feature of Twitter, a communication between two people, meaning it was intended to certain person or someone and not for public consumption, so she is not liable.

But then, the lawyers of the Bulacan Mayor pursue the case , meaning they have found something that will merit such act and that I cannot assist at the moment having been initially immersed to the complicated world of Philippine Laws. Lets lets found out how the case progress, stay tuned!

Last and favorable shout out to everyone, be mindful and responsible to the stuffs you posts on Twitter or Facebook! It might get back to you unexpectedly.

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Law 101: The Beginning

Well its finally official, I'm now enrolled to the College of Law, first year in Medina College, Southside Philippines. I'm starting to subject myself to another 4 years of reading, writing and massive comprehension with no less than the most difficult course of all.

So why did I decide to curse my geeky self? Fun again, of being curious about anything, crime, politics, laws that applies to everything I do or will be doing. Did I not mentioned that I like watching the Crime and Investigation (CI) Channel? What else, well, lawyer is a very noble profession and when you are one here in my country, people have high respect on you.

What you should be looking forward in to? You will also be subjected to interesting topics here on the blog base on my interpretation of the law. As much as possible, I will be featuring law facts once a week and if you have questions, fell free to ask, I might answer it as far as I could as long as its related to the subject matter. You can also watch how a geek could survive such ordeal and how I my gadgets and devices conforms to the new challenge.

So that's about it, the beginning starts now so help me GOD!

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