Philippines: Issued ruling in lawsuit concerning cyber libel (Causing v People)

On 11 October 2023, the Supreme Court of the Philippines issued a decision in the case of Causing v. People, affirming that the prescription period for Cyber Libel is one year, in line with the Revised Penal Code. The case arose from a complaint filed by Representative Ferdinand Ledesma Hernandez against Causing for allegedly defamatory Facebook posts made in 2019, accusing Hernandez of misappropriating funds intended for Marawi siege victims. The ruling clarified that Cyber Libel is considered a form of traditional libel executed through a computer system, and its prescriptive period is governed by paragraph 4, Article 90 of the Revised Penal Code, rejecting the argument for a 15-year prescriptive period based on a misinterpretation of the law.