Rebellion

FIRST PERSON

By Alex Magno

There is a rebellion well underway — and the traditional means government has to quash such risings will not work this time.

The rebellion is happening in cyberspace, led by a shadowy conspiracy calling itself Anonymous. Its creed is freedom. Its advance guards are highly talented hackers. Its weapons are personal computers. The frontline is everywhere. Every targeted government website, scores of them, all proved vulnerable.

We know the power of the “hacktivists” engaged in this rebellion. Last year, when President Aquino did a highly publicized interview with YouTube, an on-line rally was called by a network calling itself The Noisy Minority. The rally swamped the website carrying the presidential interview, drowning it with adverse content.

The Noisy Minority proved that the administration’s army of trolls (the cyber equivalent of Hitler’s brown shirted bullies) may be easily overwhelmed by bloggers acting in concert. It is said the administration’s chief propagandist, chief of the trolls, cussed continuously for hours as the tide of battle turned against the Palace.

This time, the battle is more than just over which content dominated. The battle has taken on a more military form. Government websites were identified one by one and brought down by hackers. Cyber guerrillas held the initiative from the start, selecting their targets and then reporting the body count as sites were penetrated and taken down.

No firewall could be strong enough to resist the assault. No encryption was impregnable. No site could withstand the withering attack.

This is people’s war waged in cyberspace. It involved all who wish to engage.

The provocation for this cyber war is the sloppy law that Congress passed and the President signed, apparently without much thought.

The most pernicious provision in this law, according to what we know now, is an item inserted by Senator Tito Sotto at the bicameral level. The item applies the obsolete libel law to on-line content. The controversial item somehow escaped scrutiny in both chambers as they ratified the final version. It somehow escaped notice at the Palace as well, as the President simply signed bill into law.

The repressive law also underscores the fact that the legislative process was not as transparent and consultative as it should be. Netizens are scandalized that menacing provisions could be so casually inserted into the law with no debate whatsoever.

Where formal electoral politics seems to have failed as the arena for checking those in power, cyberspace now becomes the meaningful dimension for citizens to be heard.

Accommodation

Like the controversial law restricting freedom in cyberspace, the bill that will gerrymander Camarines Sur appears to be driven by political accommodation. Although the bill is not on the administration’s legislative priority list, it has powered ahead because no one seems willing to displease traditional political kingpins.

Proponents of the bill now quote Comelec chairman Sixto Brillantes as having said the electoral body will be willing to extend the deadline for the filing of candidacies to December in order to await passage of the bill carving out a portion of Camarines Sur into a brand new province. If this is true, it is most bizarre.

Why should the Comelec bend over backwards, exempt the politicians of an entirely prospective new province from the deadline for filing of candidacies? This seems entirely presumptuous — and yet the Comelec chairman has not explicitly denied statements attributed to him.

If the Comelec extends the deadline, they seem to be saying the creation of a new province is inevitable. They seem to be assuming the bill will become law as soon as Congress returns from its break and the President will readily sign the new law as he did the law on cybercrimes. Furthermore, the poll body appears sure the people of Camarines Sur will endorse a creation of a new province in a referendum.

How much time will be needed to pass that bill, have it signed into law and conduct a referendum? That will happen within the remaining months of this year only if there is broad consensus on the absolute urgency of undertaking this obvious act of gerrymandering.

There is no consensus on creating a new Camarines province. On the contrary, there is deep division on the matter. Even if the law is rushed into place, the proposed capital of the new province, a third-class municipality, does not even have the facilities to host a provincial government. One study estimates that at least P280 million is required to build those facilities.

The creation of a new province will have serious adverse financial repercussions for Camarines Sur. It will have to share its IRA with the new province. New civil servants will have to be trained. Ongoing programs will be hampered.

On top of it all, a recent survey shows an overwhelming majority of the people of Camarines Sur will reject the creation of a new province. Notwithstanding, its creation is being rushed by the old boys’ club of politicians. The old boy who chairs the Comelec seems perfectly willing to bend the rules to make this ill-timed and uneconomical political project a reality in record time.

There seems to be only one reason why this impractical project of creating a new province is being rushed: it suits the need for political control of the Fuentebella family that ruled this section of Camarines Sur for over a century. This section of an existing province generations of Fuentebellas lorded over is among the poorest, least developed areas of the country. The bill will simply make it easier for this feudal lordship to be perpetuated.