Freedom House's "Freedom on the Net 2013" survey gave the Philippines a "free" freedom-on-the-net status and a score of 25, though it fell slightly from last year's 23 (note: lower scores are better). This places the country in 11th place, one place below the United Kingdom whose score is 24. However, the Philippines ranks higher than the UK in terms of "Violations of User Rights" (10 and 16 respectively) and "Limits on Content" (5 and 6 respectively). The Philippines does, however, have more "obstacles to access" than the UK (10 and 2 respectively). In Asia, only Japan has a better score than the Philippines and the two countries are the only ones whose "Freedom on the Net" status is reported as "Free" (Japan, with a score of 22 is in 7th place, ahead of the UK). You can read the full 888 page report - available as a PDF file - here which contains some very interesting information in its chapters for individual countries.
I strongly recommend reading this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime_Prevention_Act_of_2012 Keep in mind that in the Philippines libel is a crime, not a tort.
The libel provisions of the Cybercrime Act have been removed and in any event the Act is suspended indefinitely and can not be enforced by order of the Supreme Court. In July, Senator Santiago re-introduced the "Magna Carta for Philippine Internet Freedom" (she originally introduced the Bill the previous November during the 15th Congress), which repeals the Cybercrime Act and replaces it with a more balanced set of provisions.
The link actually makes those points. The original draft of the Cybercrime Act doubled the penalties for libel if the libel was perpetrated on the Internet; it is those penalties that have been deleted from the amended draft which is to be re-submitted to the House by the DOJ. The penalty for libel online in the amended draft is now the same as for libel in print. Of course I hope Senator Santiago's Bill gets passed, just as I hope the Freedom of Information Bill gets passed. Watching the BBC interview with the delectable and talented Megan Young (now there's an advertisement for Olongapo!) I noticed that the interviewer commented on the equality of the sexes in the Philippines - a point that I agree with - it is one of the nations in which the sexes are "most equal"
It is becoming that way, for sure, but it has a ways to go yet. The Philippines was - and to an extent remains - a patriarchal society. Men are de facto heads of families and their wives are expected to be subservient - to the extent that in many families, particularly the poorer ones, it is the women who are expected to be the bread-winners whilst their husbands spend their time drinking and raising roosters. Young girls are brought-up much more strictly than boys - just visit any Mall on a weekend and you'll see that for yourself. But worse, girls often have their schooling curtailed and sent out to work to support their brothers' education. It is accepted - almost expected - that a husband will take at least one mistress with whom he may even have a second family. All the legal wife can do is to separate and seek an annulment, the cost of which is well beyond the means of most. Conversely, should a wife have an adulterous relationship, both she and her lover would, if convicted, face a few years behind bars. However, more and more women are coming to the fore and holding high ranking positions, including Leila DeLima who heads the Department of Justice and, of course, Miriam Defensor Santiago, one of the few women Senators. Filipinos, with whom I have discussed this cultural aspect, attribute these positive changes not to TV as one might expect but to the internet (in fact, in many respects, telenovellas on ABS-CBN and GMA perpetuate the "old order"). More and more Filipinos are getting a vicarious view of life in other countries and learning about other cultures and it is they who are pressing for change. That change is perceptible and Mae tells me that many more young Filipinas are visiting Ob/Gynaes for contraceptive advice, prescriptions for "the pill" and Depo shots than, say, two or three years ago and the days of women being second class citizens in society are slowly coming to an end. In a couple of generations from now, this may well be a somewhat different place culturally speaking. And that would be a Very Good Thing, in my opinion. Edited to add: With regards to Megan though, I noticed that congratulatory support for her achievement is sadly lacking on that dark underworld of Anglo-Philippine Forums. There's a lengthy thread there on this topic - which, admittedly I got bored with after a couple of pages and therefore didn't read all its posts - almost all (of those I did read) criticised the fact that she has an American father. It was left up to one rather beleaguered Filipina member to defend Megan's honour but, unfortunately, she was drowned-out by the usual suspects.
I agree with Markham. Kay, when asked to explain the behaviour of the average Filipino male, just says "His mother!" meaning that little boys are spoiled rotten whilst little girls have to do as they are told and help with the housework.
Exactly. I have heard it expressed in the following terms including by my own wife: When asked "what is wrong with Filipino men", Filipinas often reply "their mothers!". Of course it's not just mothers who spoil young boys, it's just about any female with whom they have contact such as grannies, aunts and yayas. Unless you fancy wearing an orange jumpsuit for a few years, do not under any circumstances reprimand a child - even your own - in public here and especially not a boy child.
Theres a lot of crepe talked on one or two of these particular forums. Anyhow, my wife was certainly elated when Miss Philippines won.
Based on Mrs Ash's observations and those of her family, this has been my feeling for some time now. And it doesnt just apply to contraception.
I also hope that change is under way, at last, on a big scale. Mind you, perhaps we should not get carried away; yes a lot of people use Internet cafes, but mainly to play games. Yes there is a groundswell of discontent in the middle class, but so there was under Marcos, And so on. Still, let's hope.
As Android-based smartphones become cheaper and more widespread so more and more people get connected to the interwebs for the first time. Even my nearly-70 year old technophobic mother-in-law has forsaken her trusty Nokia, bought herself an Android and now enjoys regular Skype video calls with her two OFW sons. My point is, the internet can be used to shape opinion and has the potential of becoming a powerful tool come election-time. Remember that the Million March event in Manila in August was all organised using Social Networks within a few days.
Hardly todays news though eh. I would say it is well established. Has it really been any slower to take root in the Philippines?
Yes I believe it has. When I arrived in Cebu in 2007, the only landline internet connections available for residential use were maximum 1 Mbit from either Globe or PLDT. Anything faster than that - 5 Mbit being the fastest at that time - was hugely expensive and only available to businesses. As best I can recall, I was paying almost 2,000 Pesos a month on a 12 month contract. Outside the city, landline-based connections were almost non-existent. Paul, a friend of mine in Consolacion - which is north of and adjacent to Mandaue City - has for the last 6 years been "stuck" with a Motorola "Canopy" wireless connection which, back in 2007, gave the amazing speed of 768 Kbit (but that's now increased to 1 Mbit). Once you ventured out of Metro Cebu, your only option was a 3G USB dongle with very low speeds - 500 Kbit if you were close to a tower. But deep in the province, no internet. When I first met my now wife, she was working and living in Lapu-Lapu. She'd bought herself a second-hand laptop from a pawn-broker and used a SmartBro USB dongle connection. Her connection was, at best, 256 Kbits but she used it to maintain her MySpace and Friendster pages. Just before we met, she'd discovered Facebook but because her connection speed was generally very poor, rarely accessed it. Of course, after she moved in with me - and I at that time had a 6 Mbit plus cable TV connection - she migrated everything across to Facebook - and discovered the joys of streaming video! Since then, things have improved immeasurably. In mid-2010, a new "big pipe" (to Hong Kong) was added and also in that year, HSDA became more widely available from the three wireless operators - Smart, Globe and Sun (which is actually PLDT as is much of Smart). That was the first time that people living in Dumanjug, a provincial town on the west coast of Cebu (and the Garcia clan stronghold), could actually get connected, albeit wirelessly. Since then, two further "big pipes" have been added to satiate the demand from the growing I've given you an anecdotal snapshot of one small area of the country. Extrapolate that across the country as a whole - bearing in mind that there are only 3 or 4 major metropolitan areas in the whole country - and you'll quickly realise that many Filipinos are relative newcomers to the internet. There remain quite large areas where internet is either not available at all or solely via 3G, for example parts of Leyte, Samar, parts of rural northern Luzon and the small islands. But where it is available and where there's competition between suppliers, monthly costs have actually dropped. My present 3 Mbit connection costs me less than half of what I was paying for a 1 Mbit connection 6 years ago! As the internet became more widely available to the masses, Filipinos were quick to adopt social networking and blogging and I rather suspect that this led to legislators, fearing the internet's potential - and especially social networks and the "blogosphere" - to enact the Cybercrime legislation. I mentioned that the "Million March" was organised using social network sites and the Magna Carta Internet Bill introduced by Senator Santiago is the result of "crowdsourcing" where netizens have contributed suggestions for the proposed legislation intended to replace the Cybercrime Act. And that, I believe, is democracy in action. I've not heard of any legislation that has arisen in quite the same way, have you? It's certainly a first for the Philippines.
My mother in law's employer's daughter uses social networking to good effect and has been doing so since early 2011, possibly 2010. Legislation? She has been known to take them on directly in the Senate. She uses social networking to address the masses, mainly the youth, though just one of many tools in her toolbox ie Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter along with good old fashion TV and school and university visits etc.
