Blame Revilla, not House, for cybersex proliferation - lawmaker

MANILA, Philippines – A Manila congressman yesterday said Sen. Jamby Madrigal should blame her colleague Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. and not the House of Representatives for the proliferation of the Kho-Halili sex videos.

Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr., a Protestant bishop, said Revilla sat on the House-approved Bill 3305 when he was chairman of the Senate public information committee.

Abante, the bill’s principal author, said the House approved the bill and transmitted it to the Senate in the early part of 2008.

“I talked to Bong Revilla in July last year to get him to endorse the measure and to convince his colleagues to support it but he did nothing,” he said.

“Had the Senate approved it, it would have been enacted into law and the sex videos of Hayden Kho with Katrina Halili and other women would have been illegal,” he added.

The measure seeks to punish the production, publication, distribution, sale, or exhibition of obscene and pornographic materials, and the exhibition of live sexual acts.

Offenders would have a prison term of six years to 12 years, and a fine of P500,000 to P1 million.

Abante said his proposed law is so strict and tough that the production of sex videos would be prohibited even if these were taken with the consent of the sex partners.

“My bill has been gathering dust in the Senate. Senators are more interested in their right of reply to adverse stories than in fighting obscenity and pornography,” he said.

The Senate’s approved Right of Reply Bill, which Abante’s committee on public information has endorsed, is pending with the House.

Though senators approved it unanimously, some presidential wannabes among them have withdrawn their support for it after media practitioners raised a howl of protest.

Abante said he has talked to his new counterpart, Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano, about the need to get his Bill 3305 moving in the Senate.

Over the weekend, Madrigal criticized the House for not passing the Senate-approved Anti-Child Pornography Bill.

Abante said the bill Madrigal referred to is different from his proposal.

He said his proposed law would prohibit obscene and pornographic productions, whether those involved are children or adults. 

Church reacts

This move was welcomed by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), as it urged Congress to pass an anti-cyber crime law to curb the spread of sex videos in the country.

“Whether there is a law coming from the government or not, we know that the sex videos are against morality,” CBCP president and Jaro Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said in an interview with Church-run Radyo Veritas.

The CBCP head said both the government and citizens must work together to stop the ruining of the moral fiber by such pornographic materials now being spread via the Internet.

“We need a vigilant citizen of the state,” Lagdameo said.

Meanwhile, Dangerous Drugs Board chairman Vicente Sotto III dared Kho to identify the alleged illegal drug syndicate that supplied his former girlfriend with the designer drug Ecstasy. – With Jun Bana