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Tag: Focap

Making sure we got the President correctly on internet libel

Aquino with foreign correspondents
This is what President Aquino said at the forum of the Foreign Correspondents Association in the Philippines Wednesday on internet libel in the Cybercrime Law which he signed last Sept. 12:

Question: My question is in regards to Cybercrime Law. Just in regards to your mantra under your term to improve human rights in the Philippines. How does opening the past and allowing people to be jailed for posting defamatory comments online improve human rights situation in the Philippines?

Aquino: Well, can I just state for the record: as the Chief Executive of this land when the proposed measure was brought before me, I had basically two options. Under the Constitution, if I agree with the same I sign it into law. If I disagree with the same, I veto everything. I cannot… I only have a line veto on the budget measure. I don’t have a line veto on other measures.

Questions on economy for Arroyo

Last Wednesday, I wrote about the press conference of Gloria Arroyo with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines that Malacañang press office was working out. It was supposed to have been yesterday.

Malacañang informed Focap that Arroyo would not answer political questions. She would only answer questions “pertaining to the economy and how the current US financial crisis is affecting the Philippines and other Asian countries,” Press Undersecretary Martin Crisostomo said.

Focap did not agree to the restrictions. Malacañang postponed the presscon giving as an excuse Press Secretary Jesus Dureza “not feeling well.” But Dureza was well enough to moderate yesterday’s presscon of the economic managers with the very cooperative Malacañang press corps.