The National Security Council (NSC) presented its only witness in Aug 22 hearing on the website blocking case filed with the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 104.
Carlo Felipe Poblete, an IT consultant for the NSC, claimed in court that the website “Bulatlat.com” is not blocked, saying he was able to access it in June this year.
Since August 2022, however, Bulatlat’s website has been unblocked by virtue of a preliminary injunction issued by the court. Thus, Poblete’s alleged “investigation” did not fall within the timeframe when the National Telecommunications Commission’s June 8, 2022 order was enforced on Bulatlat’s website.
During the cross examination, Poblete replied in the affirmative when asked if a blocked website could be accessed through a virtual private network (VPN), which Bulatlat did after the issuance of the memo until the unblocking of Bulatlat’s website in August 2022.
Furthermore, Poblete admitted that he knew about Esperon’s “request” for the blocking of 27 websites and about the NTC’s memorandum.
Earlier, in the June 27 hearing, NTC’s witness, Marvin F. Villegas, an employee of the NTC’s Legal Branch, testified that he received the letter of request from Esperon on June 6, 2022 and that the Legal Branch issued the memorandum on June 8, 2022.
The witnesses of both agencies admitted the issuance of the NTC memo and therefore, also admitted that the Philippine government implemented the censorship against 27 websites. Their testimonies did not contradict Bulatlat’s assertion that the NTC, NSC and former National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. violated our right to publish, our right to free press and our right to free expression.
Both witnesses failed to show that the restriction was done “in accordance with international standards of legality, necessity and proportionality.” Such standards were cited by UN Special Rapporteur on Free Expression and Opinion Irene Khan during her visit to the country early this year.
Esperon’s demurrer of evidence, which was filed in court earlier this week, claims that the NTC memo did not cause the blocking of Bulatlat website. He further claims that the inaccessibility of the website might be due to the viewers’ intermittent internet connectivity. Such a line of reasoning does not dispute the fact that Esperon did “request” for the blocking of the 27 websites, which the NTC complied with. His argument that the testimonies of Bulatlat reader-subscribers regarding the website blocking “are limited to their personal knowledge and perception” is ridiculous and laughable.
Bulatlat reiterates that the NTC memo should be junked immediately. As we wait for the resolution of this case, we call on our readers and supporters to continue standing with us in defense of press freedom and the people’s right to know.
Bulatlat is represented by the National Union of Peoples’ Lawyers.
Read more | Timeline: The fight against website blocking in the Philippines
