BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – The Supreme Court has ruled that legal actions for cyber libel should be filed within one year from the discovery by the aggrieved party.
In its recent decision, the High Court’s Third Division abandoned its previous ruling in the case of Tolentino versus People, which previously provided the prescriptive period for cyber libel is 15 years.
This means that the offended party has only one year to file a complaint for cyber libel within one year from the time he discovered the libelous accusations online.
The tribunal issued the latest jurisprudence after it resolved the petition filed by Berteni Causing, who petitioned to SC the denial of his motion to quash his cyber libel charge.
Since cyber libel is not a new crime created by the cybercrime law, the tribunal said the prescriptive period should be based on the Revised Penal Code [RPC] and not Republic Act 3326, which establishes periods of prescription for violations penalized by special acts.
The Penal Code provides for the definition of cyber libel, while Republic Act 10175 simply recognizes the use of a computer as a similar means of publication.
Likewise, the tribunal stressed that paragraph 4, Article 90 of the Penal Code, which states that “the crime of libel or other similar offenses shall prescribe in one year,” should be the basis of the one-year prescriptive period for cyber libel.
Hence, the tribunal pointed out that paragraph 2 of Article 90 of the RPC is no longer the basis or prescriptive period of 15 years.
“The Court agrees with Causing and abandons the Tolentino doctrine on the prescriptive period of Cyber Libel. To emphasize, what governs the prescription of Cyber Libel is paragraph 4, not paragraph 2, of Article 90 of the RPC. Hence, the crime of Cyber Libel prescribes in one year,” read the SC decision.
It also said that paragraph 4 must be given its literal and plain meaning, adding that the cybercrime law did not exclude cyber libel from the crime of libel itself.
Thus, the High Court said that a special and specific provision of the law prevails over a general provision.
During the passage of the Penal Code, the tribunal said that the description for libel was two years until a new law was passed and shortened it to one year.
“Given the foregoing, the Court cannot subscribe to the classification of cyber libel as a crime punishable with an afflictive penalty under paragraph 2, Article 90 of the RPC that would increase its prescriptive period to 15 years,” the SC held.
“Such interpretation disregards the clear intent of the lawmakers to set libel apart from the general class of crimes punishable with afflictive or correctional penalties,” the tribunal said.
In counting the one-year prescriptive, the tribunal stressed the same should be based on discovery by the offended party, the authorities, or their agents.
“The Court affirms its ruling in Alcantara that prescription is counted from the discovery of the published libelous matter by the offended party, the authorities, or their agents because they could hardly be expected to institute criminal proceedings for libel without prior knowledge of the same,” it said./PN
