An “activist” Supreme Court has been quietly but irrevocably redefining the Philippine legal landscape by institutionalizing remedies for the protection of human rights. In September 2007, the SC promulgated the rules governing the issuance of the Writ of Amparo (derived from the Spanish word “amparar”, meaning “to protect”). The writ is issued by the courts in favor of a petitioner whose right to life, liberty, and security has been violated or is threatened with violation by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity. The promulgation of the rules on the issuance of the writ was in response to the threats, extralegal killings and enforced disappearances prevalent in the country. The writ provides the private individual with a “weapon” to keep the wolves of private or state-sponsored oppression or coercion at bay.

Another tool for the protection of individual rights has lately been brought to the fore, with the promulgation by the SC in January 2008 of Administrative Memorandum 08-01-16-SC prescribing the new rules for the Writ of Habeas Data. The writ in general is designed to safeguard individual freedom from abuse in the information age by means of an individual complaint filed in court to protect the image, privacy, honor, information, self-determination, and freedom of information of a person. It is a remedy available to any person whose right to privacy in life, liberty or security is violated or threatened by an unlawful act or omission of a public official or employee, or of a private individual or entity engaged in the gathering, collecting or storing of data or information regarding the person, family, home and correspondence of the aggrieved party. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s a jungle out there. Those who flounder, or at least show declining earnings, are eaten, or more accurately, given an offer they may not be able to refuse. As reported in the New York Times, Jerry Yang, the chief executive of Yahoo, was finishing a regularly scheduled company board meeting Thursday night when his assistant interrupted him with an urgent phone call. It was Steven A. Ballmer, the chief executive of Microsoft, and his message was curt. He did not call to negotiate. Microsoft would make public a hostile $44.6 billion offer for Yahoo early Friday morning in a bold move to counter Google’s online pre-eminence.

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Its often been said about Steve Jobs that you either love him or hate him, nothing in between. Well, I don’t loathe him exactly, and you have to give him credit for being, in a much overused phrase, a “genius visionary”. So while I’m not an Apple worshipper like good friend Butch Dalisay, and many others I know, who presumably had a “nerdgasm” when Jobs unfolded his latest baby, the ultralight MacBook Air, neither do I see him as the anti-Christ. Read the rest of this entry »

Megan Meier of Dardenne Prairie, St. Charles County in Missouri, U.S.A. was a teenage girl at a crossroads in her young life, like many 13-year olds; no longer a child but not yet a woman. She met a 16-year old boy, Josh Evans, through her page on MySpace.com, the social networking site. They had a romantic online relationship, as these things go, but never met. They never even talked over the phone. But in virtual reality, feelings are just as intense as the real world. According to a report in the New York Times,

“she thought he was the cutest boyfriend she ever had”

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DISCLAIMER : This entry is just my personal opinion and I do not represent or espouse the positions of any party involved in this controversy. It is just my take on the matter based on my limited knowledge of obscenity laws as they relate to the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and expression. My statements should not be taken as legal advice by any of the parties involved.

Continued from Freedom of Expression and Boybastos.com

Apart from allegedly maintaining an obscene website, Mr. Bastos may also be charged under Republic Act 9208, The Anti-Trafficking of Persons Act of 2003, according to T.V. reports and statements by NBI officials who invited Mark Verzo for questioning.

Maybe not the actual acts which constitute human trafficking, but those which indirectly promote human trafficking. It’s a stretch you might say, but the law is coached in the broadest possible terms and will be interpreted as such in order to attain its objective of promoting human dignity and protecting people from exploitation.

Thus, sexual tourism and exploitation of people through abuse of vulnerability to produce pornographic material , though not exactly involving transport of persons, can be considered as an aspect of human trafficking. Pornography, in a very comprehensive sense, is also a facet of human trafficking. Section 3 (h) of R.A. 9208 defines pornography as:

“(h) Pornography – refers to any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual purposes.”

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