JPE: I'm taking crash course in email, blogs, and 'googling' to be enlightened on Cybercrime law
By: InterAksyon.com
November 24, 2012 12:07 PM

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Friday evening admitted he doesn't know how to email or even "google", but assured that he was taking a "crash course" on Internet technology to displace his "ignorance" with a more enlightened take on "the controversies that the cybercrime law and its amendments have spawned."

"I have confessed my lack of aptitude and knowledge, which some rightly call 'ignorance', for example, in Internet technology. Thus, when the issue on plagiarism against a colleague arose, I had to ask my staff to brief me about what 'blogging' means," Enrile told alumni of the University of the Philippines College of Law, at their homecoming held at the Makati Shangri-la Hotel. "I do not know how to send an 'email'; I do not know how to 'google'; I do not know how to 'tweet'; and I do not know how to use Facebook. The only thing I knew about my computer was to use it like a typewriter, but it did serve me well in the four years it took me to write my memoirs."

Enrile acknowledged that as a lawmaker, it is incumbent upon him to keep up with technology and its implications on the law and society.

"The challenge is not simply to cope with change and remain relevant, nor is it merely to avoid passiveness and ignorance," the Senate president said. "And so, at the ripe old age of 88, I now have to take a crash course on how these new and fantastic ways of communication and publication via the internet work and operate. I promise you that I will soon have a more enlightened view on the issues and the controversies that the cybercrime law and its amendments have spawned."

At the UP Law homecoming, Enrile acknowledged and congratulated as well newly appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, a member of the reunion's host and organizer, the Silver Jubilee Class of 1987.

"The timing and circumstances of this event could be no less than perfect, especially for UP Law Class of 1987," the senator said. "For one among them, the former Dean of the UP College of Law has just been named Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Justice Marvic V. F. Leonen made us all proud as he led the Philippine government panel in the peace negotiations with the MILF. The framework agreement that was recently concluded has raised much hope for the nation for a durable and lasting peaceful solution to the Mindanao problem."

In peace, governance, technology, and communications, Enrile said, it is a personal and professional challenge to keep pace with change: "The country and its people are experiencing the shifting tides and strong currents in a world that has increasingly turned smaller and borderless with the advent of globalization and new technology, especially in the area of communications. Now, more than ever, we must comprehend and embrace the dynamics of change and re-examine the ways by which our laws and our justice system must evolve."
source: JPE: I'm taking crash course in email, blogs, and 'googling' to be enlightened on Cybercrime law - InterAksyon.com