As we mark the 29th anniversary of the first-ever internet connection in the Philippines, we jointly reiterate our position: the June 2022 resolution of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) that led to the blocking of 26 websites in the Philippines is a clear violation of the constitutionally-guaranteed freedom of speech and of the press. The resolution clearly constitutes prior restraint and should once and for all be scrapped.
The continued effectivity of the NTC blocking order succinctly mirrors the state of the Philippine Internet almost three decades since the nation was first connected: not only is it slow, expensive, and unstable, the space for discourse that it should have provided has shrunk further, to the point of oblivion.
The 26 websites blocked by the NTC order include not only two alternative media news sites, Bulatlat.com and Pinoyweekly.org, but also the websites of sectoral formations and various progressive organizations, including the sites of multisectoral formation Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, agricultural workers’ organization Unyon ng Manggagawa sa Agrikultura (UMA), peasant women organization Amihan, fisherfolk group Pamalakaya, and even groups like the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines, Save Our Schools Network and anti-imperialist coalition International League of Peoples’ Struggles (ILPS).
While a court resolution issued last August 2022 ordered telecommunications companies to temporarily lift the effect of the NTC order on Bulatlat’s website, many of the affected sites remain blocked. While cause-oriented groups established mirror sites to counter the effects of the NTC blocking order, the said issuance still gnashed through the already shrinking space for discourse afforded to these groups. How many stories and viewpoints of the marginalized and underrepresented have been rendered invisible due to the NTC order? How many reports on the dire situations of farmers, fisherfolk, and other sidelined groups were pushed further to the peripheries in the past eight months?
The blocking order manifests a clear overreach on the part of the NTC and even the Anti-Terrorism Council’s powers. In fact, under Republic Act No. 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and its Implementing Rules and Regulations, designation only triggers the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s power to freeze designated groups’ assets. Even if several websites included in the blocking order are operated by designated organizations, this does not give the NTC – not any other government agency – the power to block access to their sites. The NTC blocking order is thus a great stumbling block to attaining a better Internet landscape in the Philippines.
We urge all freedom-loving Filipinos, as well as the world, to join us in clamoring for the lifting of the blocking order against our websites and compel the government to stop the practice of weaponizing the law at the expense of our constitutionally-guaranteed rights.###
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