DATA A DAY: Legislators and their ‘freedom of expression’

MEDIA GROUPS have complained about increasing government restrictions on Freedom of Expression even as the government itself goes slow on the passage of a Freedom of Information Act.

Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the cyberlibel provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, thereby expanding the coverage of the country’s libel laws into cyberspace.

CONGRESS FILE (1)

However, Congress has its own set of rules when it comes to how its members express themselves. No mere mortals, legislators are given special privileges when they speak while Congress is in session.

For today’s Data a Day:

TRUE OR FALSE: The use of offensive or improper language by legislators in speeches or debates in Congress or its committees is legally actionable.

For the answer to that question, visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day website, or go directly to our MoneyPolitics Online database for other relevant pieces of information.

DATA A DAY: Legislators and their ‘freedom of expression’

MEDIA GROUPS have complained about increasing government restrictions on Freedom of Expression even as the government itself goes slow on the passage of a Freedom of Information Act.

Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the cyberlibel provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, thereby expanding the coverage of the country’s libel laws into cyberspace.

CONGRESS FILE (1)

However, Congress has its own set of rules when it comes to how its members express themselves. No mere mortals, legislators are given special privileges when they speak while Congress is in session.

For today’s Data a Day:

TRUE OR FALSE: The use of offensive or improper language by legislators in speeches or debates in Congress or its committees is legally actionable.

For the answer to that question, visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day website, or go directly to our MoneyPolitics Online database for other relevant pieces of information.

DATA A DAY: Legislators and their ‘freedom of expression’

MEDIA GROUPS have complained about increasing government restrictions on Freedom of Expression even as the government itself goes slow on the passage of a Freedom of Information Act.

Recently, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the cyberlibel provision of the Cybercrime Prevention Act, thereby expanding the coverage of the country’s libel laws into cyberspace.

CONGRESS FILE (1)

However, Congress has its own set of rules when it comes to how its members express themselves. No mere mortals, legislators are given special privileges when they speak while Congress is in session.

For today’s Data a Day:

TRUE OR FALSE: The use of offensive or improper language by legislators in speeches or debates in Congress or its committees is legally actionable.

For the answer to that question, visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day website, or go directly to our MoneyPolitics Online database for other relevant pieces of information.

DATA A DAY: Are OFWs exempt from income tax?

BY NOW everyone has heard of the travails of Manny Pacquiao, the famous Filipino boxer who can slug it out on the boxing mat, but is facing a possible knockout from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Pacquiao is the subject of a tax evasion case from the BIR after allegedly failing to pay P2.2 billion in income taxes from 2008 to 2009.

Today’s Data a Day question has nothing to do with Pacquiao, though. It has more to do with Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs), the nameless millions who toil abroad with little or no government protection or recognition, just to be able to send some foreign currency home.

According to the National Statistics Office, there are around 2.2 million OFWs working at any one time abroad. These are the legal, listed, or registered OFWs who are recognized by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. There are even more out there who are unlisted and unregistered, and very much vulnerable.

Of course, Pacquiao is no OFW by any long shot – the staggering amounts that he is able to earn would be more than sufficient to happily send a few hundred thousand OFWs home. But if you can answer correctly today’s Data a Day, then you may have a good idea why Pacquiao would probably wish he was registered as an OFW like his other less fortunate countrymen.

Today’s Data a Day question:

Are OFWs exempt from income taxes?

For the answer to that question, visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day site, or come over and look at our MoneyPolitics Online website for more data that you can use – whether you’re Manny Pacquiao or not.

 

 

 

DATA A DAY: Why doesn’t PNoy certify the FOI bill as urgent

WHEN HE WAS still a presidential hopeful, then Senator Benigno S. Aquino III told reporters that he would support the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Three years into his term, however, President Aquino has still not certified the FOI bill as urgent. This, even as allies in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have filed their own versions of the FOI in their respective chambers. At the same time, a special working group within the Office of the President had also drafted its own version of the FOI.

With these elements in place, many are puzzled as to why the President has not seen it fit to throw the influence he has over the legislature behind the FOI bill.

For today’s Data a Day:

What is the reason given by Malacanang for President Aquino’s refusal to certify the FOI bill as urgent?

For the answer to that question, just visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day site, or go through our MoneyPolitics Online website for more juicy bits of data.