President Benigno Aquino 3rd said on Wednesday that he is in favor of decriminalizing libel as he supported the inclusion of an online libel provision in the newly signed Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

“I fully subscribe to the idea of decriminalizing libel or no jail punishment for libel, but not lessening the atmosphere to encourage irresponsibility of others,” President Aquino said.

On the other hand, the President said that he supports any move to amend the anti-cybercrime law, including the penalty on online libel. He explained that he signed the law because there is an urgent need to address cyber crimes, particularly identity fraud, computer-related forgery, computer-related fraud, content-related offenses like child pornography, unsolicited commercial and many others.

“I had two options. If I agree, I sign [it] into law. If I disagree, I veto everything. I only have line veto on budget. If I failed to sign, provisions on identity fraud, pornography, computer-related forgery, computer-related fraud, content-related offenses like child pornography and many others sought to be penalized would’ve been left in limbo,” he said.

“Our freedoms, and all our rights, are guarded by the freedoms and the rights of other people,” he added

The Supreme Court has issued a temporary restraining order stopping for 120 days the implementation of the cybercrime law, which was strongly criticized for its provisions imposing stiffer penalties on libel.