After approving the Data Privacy Act last August, Pres. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III has now also signed into law the Cybercrime Prevention Act, a top ICT official confirmed to Newsbytes.PH.
Louis Casambre, executive director of the Information and Communications Technology Office (ICTO), said in a text message that Aquino signed the legislation on Wednesday, Sept. 12, although no official signed copies of the document is available as of posting time.
The Cybercrime law has been awaiting the president’s signature after a bicameral conference committee approved the final version of the measure, along with the Data Privacy Act, and subsequently transmitted to Malacanang in middle of this year.
Prior to its enactment, the Cybercrime law elicited objections from some quarters who questioned its provisions regarding online libel.
With the signing into of the measure into law, the bill proposing the creation of the Department of ICT (DICT) is now the only remaining ICT-related legislation passed by Congress that has not been acted upon by Malacanang.
UPDATE:
A signed copy of the law has been uploaded in the Official Gazette on Saturday, Sept. 15. Here’s the link.
