Philippine Blogger Arrested
By Curt on Sep 9, 2007 in Mark Verzo, Phillipines, Anti-Free Speech Laws
On Friday, September 7, Mark Verzo, who blogs at Thoughts in Binary, became the first blogger to be arrested by Philippine authorities. Verzo runs a company called Bembang! which features a chain of websites, Bembang! Links, and a blog network Bembang! Blogs (via PinOy Spy!). Some of the material is erotic.
Verzo was arrested, by the National Bureau of Investigation on a charge of distributing pornography. The charge centered on his site Boybastos.com. (The site did not load when I tried to view it.) Verzo was released later that day after being fingerprinted at NBI headquarters. GMA News reports, “NBI agents said investigators are studying what case would be filed against Verzo although they admitted there is no law yet against internet pornography in the Philippines.”
The arrest was urged by Philippine senator Senator Loren Legarda. She has introduced a bill to make such arrests easier, and, well, more legal, called Senate Bill 1375: Anti-Computer Pornography Act, which provides penalties including six years in prison and 500,000 Philippine pesos fine.
Basapa said:.
I was exasperated, because no matter how much they deny it, everyone knows that in the Philippines, even if you don’t sleep in the Government-Church bed, you’re still fucked. Loren Legarda’s arrest of Mark Verzo was a warning shot: the sordid theocratic affair between the government and the church have the collective power to control what you say, those who do not agree with them will pay dearly…This bill smells like a moral blanket that can be used for other purposes.
And therein lies our problem with it. The Philippine government has been fighting against the Muslim groups Moro Islamic Liberation Front, Abu Sayyaf and Jenaah Islamiyah and the New People’s Army, a Marxist group, all devoted to the use of force. It’s too easy in a situation of conflict to find uses for laws that limit free speech.
