The House of Representatives approved on third and final reading on Monday a bill amending the Anti-Wiretapping Law by including the ban on the use of electronic devices to intercept or record private conversations.
With 216 affirmative votes and zero negatives, the chamber approved House Bill 8378 which amends RA 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Act.
If enacted, the measure will prohibit the tapping, intercepting or recording any "oral, wire, radio, digital or electronic" provide communication using "any electronic, mechanical, digital or analog phone system, or similar devices."
Currently, the Anti-Wiretapping Law, which was enacted in 1965, only prohibits recording private communication using "dictaphone or dictagraph or walkie-talkie or tape recorder."
The measure also imposes stiffer penalties on the violators of its provisions, who will now face imprisonment of not less than six months to a maximum of six years without probation.
At the same time, the bill also amends a section in the Anti-Wiretapping Law to allow law enforcement officers to do wiretapping activities on the following cases:
Currently, the law only allows law enforcers to conduct wiretapping in cases involving treason, espionage, provoking war and disloyalty in case of war, piracy, mutiny in the high seas, rebellion, conspiracy and proposal to commit rebellion, inciting to rebellion, sedition, conspiracy to commit sedition, inciting to sedition, and kidnapping.
Moreover, the bill also prohibits public telecommunication entities engaged in voice and data transmission to retain data for more than one year, except those which are subject of a pending case. —LDF, GMA News