Criminal Law: Special Laws Related with Crimes Against Personal Liberty and Security

     Crimes Against Personal Liberty and Security |  Criminal Law

RA 4200 – Anti-Wiretapping Act of 1965

Crime of wiretapping - It shall be unlawful for any person, not being authorized by all the parties to any private communication or spoken word, to tap any wire or cable, or by using any other device or arrangement, to secretly overhear, intercept, or record such communication or spoken word by using a device commonly known as a dictaphone or dictagraph or detectaphone or walkie-talkie or tape recorder, or however otherwise described.

It shall also be unlawful for any person, be the a participant or not in the act or acts penalized in the next preceding sentence, to knowingly possess any tape record, wirerecord, disc record, or any other such record, or copies thereof, of any communication or spoken word secured either before or after the effective date of this Act in the manner prohibited by this law; or to replay the same for any other person or persons; or to communicate the contents thereof, either verbally or in writing, or to furnish transcriptions thereof, whether complete or partial, to any other person: Provided, That the use of such record or any copies thereof as evidence in any civil, criminal investigation or trial of offenses mentioned in section 3 hereof, shall not be covered by this prohibition.

2. Written order - For a valid court order to be granted, the crimes committed (or to be committed) by the suspects should be the following:

1.) Treason
2.) Espionage
3.) Provoking war and disloyalty in case of war
4.) Piracy
5.) Mutiny on the high seas
6.) Rebellion
7.) Conspiracy to commit rebellion
8.) Inciting to rebellion
9.) Sedition
10.) Inciting to sedition
11.) Kidnapping
12.) Violations of CA 616 (espionage and other offenses against national security)

To apply for a court order, examination of the witnesses must show the following:

1.) There are reasonable grounds to believe that the above crimes were committed, are being committed or are about to be committed. In case of rebellion, conspiracy to commit rebellion, sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition and inciting to sedition, the order will be granted only if there is prior proof that a rebellion, etc., has actually been or is being committed.
2.) There are reasonable ground to believe that the evidence obtained will secure a conviction for the suspects or provide a solution to or prevention of any such crimes.
3.) There are no other readily available means of gathering evidence.
The contents of the order are as follows:
1.) The identity of the persons in question
2.) The identity of the officers authorized to conduct surveillance
3.) The offense committed or about to be committed
4.) The period of authorization (60 days, extendable or renewable if public interest is on the line)

RA 9208 – as amended by RA 10364: Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2012

SEC. 3. Definition of Terms. – As used in this Act:
(a) Trafficking in Persons – refers to the recruitment, obtaining, hiring, providing, offering, transportation, transfer, maintaining, harboring, or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge, within or across national borders by means of threat, or use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, abuse of power or of position, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or, the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person for the purpose of exploitation which includes at a minimum, the exploitation or the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or services, slavery, servitude or the removal or sale of organs.

The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring, adoption or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation or when the adoption is induced by any form of consideration for exploitative purposes shall also be considered as ‘trafficking in persons’ even if it does not involve any of the means set forth in the preceding paragraph.

(b) Child – refers to a person below eighteen (18) years of age or one who is over eighteen (18) but is unable to fully take care of or protect himself/herself from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation, or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.

(c) Prostitution – refers to any act, transaction, scheme or design involving the use of a person by another, for sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct in exchange for money, profit or any other consideration.

"(d) Forced Labor – refers to the extraction of work or services from any person by means of enticement, violence, intimidation or threat, use of, force or coercion, including deprivation of freedom, abuse of authority or moral ascendancy, debt-bondage or deception including any work or service extracted from any person under the menace of penalty.

(e) Slavery – refers to the status or condition of a person over whom any or all of the powers attaching to the right of ownership are exercised.

(f) Involuntary Servitude – refers to a condition of enforced and compulsory service induced by means of any scheme, plan or pattern, intended to cause a person to believe that if he or she did not enter into or continue in such condition, he or she or another person would suffer serious harm or other forms of abuse or physical restraint, or threat of abuse or harm, or coercion including depriving access to travel documents and withholding salaries, or the abuse or threatened abuse of the legal process.

(g) Sex Tourism – refers to a program organized by travel and tourism-related establishments and individuals which consists of tourism packages or activities, utilizing and offering escort and sexual services as enticement for tourists. This includes sexual services and practices offered during rest and recreation periods for members of the military.

(h) Sexual Exploitation – refers to participation by a person in prostitution, pornography or the production of pornography, in exchange for money, profit or any other consideration or where the participation is caused or facilitated by any means of intimidation or threat, use of force, or other forms of coercion, abduction, fraud, deception, debt bondage, abuse of power or of position or of legal process, taking advantage of the vulnerability of the person, or giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person; or in sexual intercourse or lascivious conduct caused or facilitated by any means as provided in this Act.

(i) Debt Bondage – refers to the pledging by the debtor of his/her personal services or labor or those of a person under his/her control as security or payment for a debt, when the length and nature of services is not clearly defined or when the value of the services as reasonably assessed is not applied toward the liquidation of the debt.

(j) Pornography – refers to any representation, through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent shows, information technology, or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or simulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primarily sexual purposes.

(k) Council – shall mean the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking created under Section 20 of this Act.

SEC. 4. Acts of Trafficking in Persons. – It shall be unlawful for any person, natural or juridical, to commit any of the following acts:

(a) To recruit, obtain, hire, provide, offer, transport, transfer, maintain, harbor, or receive a person by any means, including those done under the pretext of domestic or overseas employment or training or apprenticeship, for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, or sexual exploitation;

"(b) To introduce or match for money, profit, or material, economic or other consideration, any person or, as provided for under Republic Act No. 6955, any Filipino woman to a foreign national, for marriage for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling or trading him/her to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(c) To offer or contract marriage, real or simulated, for the purpose of acquiring, buying, offering, selling, or trading them to engage in prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor or slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(d) To undertake or organize tours and travel plans consisting of tourism packages or activities for the purpose of utilizing and offering persons for prostitution, pornography or sexual exploitation;

(e) To maintain or hire a person to engage in prostitution or pornography;

(f) To adopt persons by any form of consideration for exploitative purposes or to facilitate the same for purposes of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(g) To adopt or facilitate the adoption of persons for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage;

(h) To recruit, hire, adopt, transport, transfer, obtain, harbor, maintain, provide, offer, receive or abduct a person, by means of threat or use of force, fraud, deceit, violence, coercion, or intimidation for the purpose of removal or sale of organs of said person;

(i) To recruit, transport, obtain, transfer, harbor, maintain, offer, hire, provide, receive or adopt a child to engage in armed activities in the Philippines or abroad;

(j) To recruit, transport, transfer, harbor, obtain, maintain, offer, hire, provide or receive a person by means defined in Section 3 of this Act for purposes of forced labor, slavery, debt bondage and involuntary servitude, including a scheme, plan, or pattern intended to cause the person either:

(1) To believe that if the person did not perform such labor or services, he or she or another person would suffer serious harm or physical restraint; or

(2) To abuse or threaten the use of law or the legal processes; and

(k) To recruit, transport, harbor, obtain, transfer, maintain, hire, offer, provide, adopt or receive a child for purposes of exploitation or trading them, including but not limited to, the act of baring and/or selling a child for any consideration or for barter for purposes of exploitation.

Trafficking for purposes of exploitation of children shall include:

(1) All forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, involuntary servitude, debt bondage and forced labor, including recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;
(2) The use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography, or for pornographic performances;
(3) The use, procuring or offering of a child for the production and trafficking of drugs; and
(4) The use, procuring or offering of a child for illegal activities or work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm their health, safety or morals; and

(l) To organize or direct other persons to commit the offenses defined as acts of trafficking under this Act.

RA 9995 – Anti-Photo and Video Voyeurism Act of 2009

Section 3. Definition of Terms. - For purposes of this Act, the term:

(a) "Broadcast" means to make public, by any means, a visual image with the intent that it be viewed by a person or persons.

(b) "Capture" with respect to an image, means to videotape, photograph, film, record by any means, or broadcast.

(c) "Female breast" means any portion of the female breast.

(d) "Photo or video voyeurism" means the act of taking photo or video coverage of a person or group of persons performing sexual act or any similar activity or of capturing an image of the private area of a person or persons without the latter's consent, under circumstances in which such person/s has/have a reasonable expectation of privacy, or the act of selling, copying, reproducing, broadcasting, sharing, showing or exhibiting the photo or video coverage or recordings of such sexual act or similar activity through VCD/DVD, internet, cellular phones and similar means or device without the written consent of the person/s involved, notwithstanding that consent to record or take photo or video coverage of same was given by such person's.

(e) "Private area of a person" means the naked or undergarment clad genitals, public area, buttocks or female breast of an individual.

(f) "Under circumstances in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy" means believe that he/she could disrobe in privacy, without being concerned that an image or a private area of the person was being captured; or circumstances in which a reasonable person would believe that a private area of the person would not be visible to the public, regardless of whether that person is in a public or private place.

Section 4. Prohibited Acts. - It is hereby prohibited and declared unlawful for any person:

(a) To take photo or video coverage of a person or group of persons performing sexual act or any similar activity or to capture an image of the private area of a person/s such as the naked or undergarment clad genitals, public area, buttocks or female breast without the consent of the person/s involved and under circumstances in which the person/s has/have a reasonable expectation of privacy;

(b) To copy or reproduce, or to cause to be copied or reproduced, such photo or video or recording of sexual act or any similar activity with or without consideration;

(c) To sell or distribute, or cause to be sold or distributed, such photo or video or recording of sexual act, whether it be the original copy or reproduction thereof; or

(d) To publish or broadcast, or cause to be published or broadcast, whether in print or broadcast media, or show or exhibit the photo or video coverage or recordings of such sexual act or any similar activity through VCD/DVD, internet, cellular phones and other similar means or device.

The prohibition under paragraphs (b), (c) and (d) shall apply notwithstanding that consent to record or take photo or video coverage of the same was given by such person/s. Any person who violates this provision shall be liable for photo or video voyeurism as defined herein.

RA 9775 – Anti-Child Pornography Act of 2009.

Section 3. Definition of Terms. -

(a) "Child" refers to a person below eighteen (18) years of age or over, but is unable to fully take care of himself/herself from abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation or discrimination because of a physical or mental disability or condition.

For the purpose of this Act, a child shall also refer to:

(1) a person regardless of age who is presented, depicted or portrayed as a child as defined herein; and

(2) computer-generated, digitally or manually crafted images or graphics of a person who is represented or who is made to appear to be a child as defined herein.

(b) "Child pornography" refers to any representation, whether visual, audio, or written combination thereof, by electronic, mechanical, digital, optical, magnetic or any other means, of child engaged or involved in real or simulated explicit sexual activities.

(c) "Explicit Sexual Activity" includes actual or simulated -

(1) As to form: sexual intercourse or lascivious act including, but not limited to, contact involving genital to genital, oral to genital, anal to genital, or oral to anal, whether between persons of the same or opposite sex;

(2) bestiality;

(3) masturbation;

(4) sadistic or masochistic abuse;

(5) lascivious exhibition of the genitals, buttocks, breasts, pubic area and/or anus; or

(6) use of any object or instrument for lascivious acts

(d) "Internet address" refers to a website, bulletin board service, internet chat room or news group, or any other internet or shared network protocol address.

(e) "Internet cafe or kiosk" refers to an establishment that offers or proposes to offer services to the public for the use of its computer/s or computer system for the purpose of accessing the internet, computer games or related services.

(f) "Internet content host" refers to a person who hosts or who proposes to host internet content in the Philippines.

(g) "Internet service provider (ISP)" refers to a person or entity that supplies or proposes to supply, an internet carriage service to the public.

(h) "Grooming" refers to the act of preparing a child or someone who the offender believes to be a child for sexual activity or sexual relationship by communicating any form of child pornography. It includes online enticement or enticement through any other means.

(i) "Luring" refers to the act of communicating, by means of a computer system, with a child or someone who the offender believes to be a child for the purpose of facilitating the commission of sexual activity or production of any form of child pornography.

(j) "Pandering" refers to the act of offering, advertising, promoting, representing or distributing through any means any material or purported material that is intended to cause another to believe that the material or purported material contains any form of child pornography, regardless of the actual content of the material or purported material.

(k) "Person" refers to any natural or juridical entity.

Section 4. Unlawful or Prohibited Acts. - It shall be unlawful for any person:

(a) To hire, employ, use, persuade, induce or coerce a child to perform in the creation or production of any form of child pornography;

(b) To produce, direct, manufacture or create any form of child pornography;

(c) To publish offer, transmit, sell, distribute, broadcast, advertise, promote, export or import any form of child pornography;

(d) To possess any form of child pornography with the intent to sell, distribute, publish, or broadcast: Provided. That possession of three (3) or more articles of child pornography of the same form shall be prima facie evidence of the intent to sell, distribute, publish or broadcast;

(e) To knowingly, willfully and intentionally provide a venue for the commission of prohibited acts as, but not limited to, dens, private rooms, cubicles, cinemas, houses or in establishments purporting to be a legitimate business;

(f) For film distributors, theaters and telecommunication companies, by themselves or in cooperation with other entities, to distribute any form of child pornography;

(g) For a parent, legal guardian or person having custody or control of a child to knowingly permit the child to engage, participate or assist in any form of child pornography;

(h) To engage in the luring or grooming of a child;

(i) To engage in pandering of any form of child pornography;

(j) To willfully access any form of child pornography;

(k) To conspire to commit any of the prohibited acts stated in this section. Conspiracy to commit any form of child pornography shall be committed when two (2) or more persons come to an agreement concerning the commission of any of the said prohibited acts and decide to commit it; and

(l) To possess any form of child pornography.

Section 5. Syndicated Child Pornography - The crime of child pornography is deemed committed by a syndicate if carried out by a group of three (3) or more persons conspiring or confederating with one another and shall be punished under Section 15(a) of this Act.

Section 6. Who May File a Complaint. - Complaints on cases of any form of child pornography and other offenses punishable under this Act may be filed by the following:

(a) Offended party;

(b) Parents or guardians;

(c) Ascendant or collateral relative within the third degree of consanguinity;

(d) Officer, social worker or representative of a licensed child-caring institution;

(e) Officer or social worker of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD);

(f) Local social welfare development officer;

(g) Barangay chairman;

(h) Any law enforcement officer;

(i) At least three (3) concerned responsible citizens residing in the place where the violation occurred; or

(j) Any person who has personal knowledge of the circumstances of the commission of any offense under this Act.