-------- Original Message -------- Subject: Bantay ICT (ICT Watch) campaign against electronic surveillance, invasion of privacy and anti-terror bills Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 12:17:55 +0800 From: Robert Guerra <rguerra@private> To: Declan McCullagh <declan@private> Declan: I'm presently visiting the Philippines and thought your readers might be interested in supporting the Bantay ICT group. Can you post this on the list - would really appreciate it. regards Robert -- Bantay ICT, a group of Philippine advocates doing analysis and policy interventions on ICT issues, especially those related to communication rights, is waging a campaign against the enactment of an anti-terrorism law. Fifteen bills are currently pending in both Houses of Congress. The House and Senate committees have set hearings next week to discuss the proposed bills. A provision in at least one of the bills (authored by Rep. Robert Ace Barbers) authorizes the government to conduct electronic surveillance allowing it to tap, monitor or intercept email, voice mail, even text messages of any person suspected of being a member of a terrorist organization. Bantay ICT feels that: "this encroaches on the people's right to privacy, freedom of expression, and communication. Under the pretext of combating 'terrorism', this bill threatens our personal freedom to communicate as we fear that the government will abuse this measure to conduct surveillance to minimize dissent and silence activists." To stop the passage of such a law, you can do your share by: 1. Signing the Bantay ICT online petition at http:// www.petitiononline.com/jmod69/petition.html 2. Writing a letter (a sample of which you can modify is provided below) to the House Committee on Justice which is now working on the draft of a consolidated/substitute bill. Send via postal mail or fax to: Rep. Simeon Datumanong Chairperson, House Committee on Justice Committee Affairs Department 3rd Floor, Ramon V. Mitra Building House of Representatives, Quezon City Telefax: 9511223 or use the Congress site's web form at: http://www.congress.gov.ph/ committees/search.php?id=0520# 3. Writing a letter to Pres. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Send via postal mail, fax or email to: H.E. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo President of the Republic of the Philippines Malacaņang Palace, J.P. Laurel Street, San Miguel District, Manila Tel. 7356201 Email: gma@private, corres@private 4. Texting GMA Sample text: IM AGAINST ANTI_TEROR BILL & NATL ID UPHOLD OUR RIGHT 2 PRIVACY REPECT OUR FREEDOM GLOBE: 09178398462, 09178985462, 09178982462 SMART: 09198984621, 09198984622, 09198984623 DRAFT OF LETTER (Bantay ICT requests to be furnished a copy of the letter you sent at j_mod@private for monitoring purposes.) I am against the anti-terror bills filed in Congress, especially the provision on electronic surveillance. I feel that this provision encroaches on the people's right to privacy, freedom of expression, and communication. It threatens our personal freedom to communicate as we fear that the government will abuse this measure to conduct surveillance to minimize dissent and silence activists. According to the provision, the government may conduct electronic surveillance and/or tap, monitor or intercept internet e-mail, voice mail, even text messages of any person suspected of being a member of a terrorist organization. If this bill will be enacted, I fear that the government may use this to target human rights activists, youth leaders, trade unionists, political oppositionists and even journalists. In 2001, Filipinos used the power of information and communications technology (ICT) to protest against the Estrada administration. ICT became the weapon of choice of many Filipinos frustrated with Mr. Estrada's kind of governance. By sending statements and by downloading materials through the Internet, by sending millions of text messages, Filipinos all over the world were linked together and were able to topple another president in what was dubbed as the 'multimedia revolution'. If this bill will be enacted into a law, we may never have the chance to use the power of the Internet again to air our grievances. Yes, 'terrorism' is a menace that must be stopped but not at all cost; certainly not at the expense of our right to privacy and communication. The Philippines have enough laws to combat 'terrorism'; we surely do not need this one. No to invasion of privacy, No to the curtailment of freedom of expression and communication, No to electronic surveillance, No to anti-terrorism bill! Truly yours, Your Name -- ---------------------[ Ciphire Signature ]---------------------- From: rguerra@private signed email body (3643 characters) Date: on 22 May 2005 at 04:18:13 UTC To: declan@private ---------------------------------------------------------------- : Ciphire has secured this email against identity theft. : Free download at www.ciphire.com. The garbled lines : below are the sender's verifiable digital signature. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 00fAAAAAEAAAAFCJBCOw4AAKUBAAIAAgACACD9RZWDgmpFLMs4lek8uB2pLZpyny 7u7fTq6V7Wk2gllgEAIAs7VyCEuxGMnVNhM6ZeRYST1cct7e7XRUp6ZP2Pu+hP0d eETypnPIoCF6DXZrwuyf72q4HJUlDYfpeqKs9wcg== ------------------[ End Ciphire Signed Message ]---------------- _______________________________________________ Politech mailing list Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)
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