MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives has approved another bill that seeks to curb the proliferation of obscene and pornographic materials such as sex videos.
Majority Leader Arthur Defensor told reporters yesterday that Bill 4315, authored by Rep. Irwin Tieng of the party-list group Buhay, was among several measures the House approved last Friday.
He said with the approval of Tieng’s measure, he and his colleagues hope that the production, distribution and exhibition of obscene and pornographic materials would be minimized, if not stopped.
He said he calendared the bill for plenary approval after Speaker Prospero Nograles directed him to give it top priority.
Under Bill 4315, it would be illegal for any person to videotape or record in any form the sexual or private acts of another person without the latter’s consent.
It would also be unlawful for any person to show, share or exhibit any video or record of such acts even if this was taken with the consent of the parties involved.
Offenders would face a prison term of six months to six years and a fine of P100,000 to P500,000.
In case the violator is a foreigner, he would be subject to deportation after serving his sentence.
Not covered by the proposed law is videotaping or recording authorized by courts in criminal proceedings.
The Tieng measure is the second anti-obscenity and anti-pornography bill the House has passed since last year, when it approved Bill 3305, authored by Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr.
OMB: Confiscate hard drives
Meanwhile, Optical Media Board (OMB) legal division chief lawyer Cyrus Valenzuela said that the rounding up and confiscation of hard drives of computers used by video pirates in Quiapo, Manila could be key to establish those responsible for the reproduction and proliferation of the first copies of the Hayden Kho-Katrina Halili sex videos.
Valenzuela said this move could help authorities establish the trail on how the sex videos ended up getting replicated and sold in the streets.
OMB chairman Edu Manzano said that more than the celebrities involved in the scandal and the showbiz controversies surrounding it, the concern of the board is to find out how the videos were reproduced and peddled by pirates of pornographic videos in Quiapo. – Reinir Padua, Aurea Calica