Rizal 2nd District Representative Fidel Nograles is pleased that President Rodrigo Duterte has not turned a blind eye on the rising cases of child pornography in the country.

Duterte recently ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to penalize internet service providers (ISPs) that could not end online child pornography.

This is following the spike of online sexual exploitation cases during the enhanced community quarantine, which grew from 19,900 in 2019 to 47,937 in 2020.

“Nagpapasalamat tayo na si Pangulong Duterte na mismo ang nag-direkta para magkaroon ng agarang aksyon laban sa child pornography. Nananawagan tayo sa Kongreso na gawin din ang makakaya para matigil na ang pagsasamantala sa ating kabataan,” he said.

Last year, Nograles filed House Bill No. 7633 or the Anti-Sexual Abuse and Exploitation of Children Act of 2020 to amend Section 9 of RA 9775 after the Department of Justice reported a 264.63 percent increase in the child pornography cases from 2019 to 2020.

If passed, the measure would give ISPs an option to easily track violators through a software then report them to authorities within seven days of detection.

However, HB 7633 indicates that “nothing in this section may be construed to require an ISP to engage in the monitoring of any user, subscriber or customer or the content of any communication of any such person,” which telecom operators have said effectively hampers them from taking action, in particular monitoring and blocking child pornography websites.

The measure would also ban sex offenders from reentering the country.