10 Ways to avoid the Boy Bastos Treatment

Uncommonly exotic blog article.

ITS ALL ABOUT ENTERTAINMENT!

ITS HOW YOU ACCEPT IT.

i heard there are people planning to buy boybastos.com and turn it into a merchant website that sells filipino handicrafts & products

Interesting comments, however I think the issues are starting to become blurred. IMO, this is what we’re looking at:

1) A man was “arrested/invited/questioned” for violating a non-existent law. A search warrant was produced for said man, based on said non-existent law.

2) The said man’s private property was confiscated, on the grounds that he is a “suspect” engaged in “criminal” activities of “sexual” nature, albeit the “crime” was supposedly committed online.

3) How can a “crime” exist when no law defines it as such? I cannot say it is illegal to enter another man’s home unless the trespassing law exists. With regards to the issue at hand – IF the said man was engaged in hosting and distributing pornography through the internet, why should be arrested + investigated + his private property be confiscated when he has not broken any laws? (Please bear in mind that his belongings have not yet been returned, nor is there a guarantee that IF they are returned, they would still be in working order).

4) In fact, shouldn’t said man be able to sue the government of the Philippines for trespassing, kidnapping, robbery, libel, and slander? Legally speaking, since he has broken no crime, the very basis for the search warrant is null and void (this is of course, assuming that the basis for the search warrant was peddling pornography online), which makes the entire situation a series of illegal acts on the part of the Philippine Government!

5) Isn’t it amusing that by using an example/scapegoat, the bill being pushed by the senator in question suddenly became a priority?

In the end, I shall say this:
I am not defending Mr. Verzo, far from it. In fact, I can sympathize with the many parents out there who would like to see legislation enacted with regards to apparent ease of access with regards to online smut. I know how they feel, I have a daughter who I love and try to protect as best I can.

HOWEVER.

I am a firm believer in the line of thought which says: “If you cannot be responsible, don’t blame the product of your irresponsibility on others.”

There are hundreds of 3rd party software available which does exactly what parents need for their impressionable children – they filter out content unsuitable for minors. Most modern internet browsers even have them installed on default.

The issue I have with this whole mess is the fact that we have a small group of people (who do not have enough knowledge of how the I.T. industry works) that are trying to regulate it as how they see fit. Could you imagine the repercussions if this is simply ignored? It is tantamount to having Fire safety laws drafted by people who do not even know that gasoline fire can be put out by (wet) sand.

It will be a big and ugly mess of haphazard legislature. Imagine if the law that Sen. Legarda had drafted requires ISP’s to filter out smut content? Again, with no real defintion of “smut”, that leaves an incredibly disturbing grey area – so who defines what is “smut”? The government? The ISP? The judiciary? A committee?

Tsk.

Maybe the blogging community should start voicing out? Maybe along the lines of: “We are intelligent adults, and any regulation that requires the filtering and censorship of information should be first carefully studied, debated, and discussed.”

Amen? Amen.

John CC,

Egg-saktimo. Bottom line is somebody got pissed and started to bully somebody! That wasn’t very presidential, ai’nt it?

Well, let’s see what happens next if HER intent was truly pornography regulation!

The problem with ALMOST ALL Filipinos is that:

1) They always think the Philippines is 99.99% corrupt and so:
2) We have “useless” laws, that are:
3) Not implemented by the authorities.
4) We are on a democratic country, and
5) We have laws about Freedom-of-Speech and Human Rights.

Been telling as many people as I can that these kind of mindset is wrong and if they don’t lie low, they are only inviting the people with connections, power, and money, including the Law itself to their doorsteps, no, lives.

This incident is one example.
I wasn’t even surprised with another incident where a home torrenter was arrested a year ago. It wasn’t on the news because the torrenter got connections.

So I agree with what was posted especially:

Yes, we can always claim freedom of expression and the lack of provisions in the penal code for such internet activities, still we can’t avoid the fact that bullying is one trick people in high places have mastered over the years.

So, who’s next?

All I can say is this: This incident simply gave the “group of people” more evidence why Bloggers should be controlled in this country. The fight is becoming even harder.

Seriously, bloggers should start gathering together to discuss this matter. Blog-censoring like it is in our neighboring countries is just around-the-corner.

Btw, you forgot to include one important tip: Change your writing style and choice of words.

Mocs,

I agree with you!!!

In my case, somebody is trying to taunt me by posting a comment and leaving the senator’s signature and i know that the senator won’t even spend time in my blog. Someone is out there to taunt!

http://reynaelena.com/2007/09/10/loren-legarda-is-that-you/

“I had several mugshots and fingerprints with the NBI too. It was not for an arrest warrant but for travel clearance.”

As Cat has already explained here, a mugshot is highly irregular if you’re just there “by invitation”. Maybe we should get more lawyers’ opinions on this before we rashly conclude that fingerprinting and mugshots are SOP for those who are invited for questioning.

Porn is prevalent…and it’s a choice.

Even before the internet, the tabloids conquer the porn world.

It’s flaunted on the streets where all walkersby feast on it in the form of pirated DVDs and VCDs.

The internet is out of control. The streets should be the ones controlled…but the government cannot do what needs to be done. VRB is weak. The local government is weak. One time I saw the VRB group raided a streetful of pirated discs…but what happened? Did they solve the problem? No! The next day, it’s just like the previous day, only, VRB is somewhere else…THERE SHOULD BE VRB IN EVERY LOCALITY TO MAKE THIS WORK.

As for the internet, no one can stop it! The poison is there but every responsible person will not take that poison! The family, the parents, should be the responsible ones KEEPING THE POISON AWAY FROM CHILDREN!

IF NO ONE WILL ENTERTAIN porn sites, will it stay? THE FACT IS A HEFTY LOT DO WANT THOSE PORN SITES!

ANOTHER FACT IS the accused and the accuser are getting free airwaves…but it is the aspiring president of the Philippines is riding on the popularity of the other.

Both of them are wrong. But what are we going to do about it?

If she concentrated on making the Meralco PPA lower, perhaps she would be President.

That’s what I think.

@ Reyna Elena – LOL LOL LOL ROFL. What a witty queen you are LOL (as the robot says: Clap Clap Clap!!!

Op,

Go to megamall, 4th floor, maraming smut doon. Painted pictures of totally nude women, maski bata pwedeng tumingin. Fifty years ago, a Filipino writer was put in jail because she wrote about a lewd act in her short story. It wasn’t even that graphic. Until now, there was no court decision to reverse that.

My point is, the arrest was dictated by a Senator who got pissed. As for values and immoral conduct and obscenity. I’ll have you know, it takes a priest and a high-ranking public official to dictate what is obscene. Ikaw, ako, si Abe, lahat tayo di pwedeng mag paaresto nang taong bastos, maski obvious na bastos pa sya.

At Pp3 inulit ulit mo lang ang argument at hindi mo naintindihan ang argument ko. Tagalugin ko na lang: Loren is a responsible Senator and has to act responsibly and not confuse complicated issues like Internet porn. Hell, she’s supposed to champion cyber laws in congress. When she had Verzo arrested, she wasn’t acting responsibly, and she confused issues. It’s even been made more confusing by the NBI who “arrested” “invited” Verzo when Verzo wasn’t supposed to be “arrested” or “invited.” May bagong law din dapat dito sa mga invitation-invitation na to. Dapat may lawyer talaga even if you just accepted the invitation at walang arrest. (I don’t understand why Verzo’s mother let the NBI take her son.) Wala ngang arrest eh, ba’t ka sasama?

Laws regarding Internet publications have yet to be pushed to Congress (for example, eh kung may welcome page naman ang adult site). Law regarding obscenity have yet to be clarified (we are a Catholic nation and hence everything that is immoral and obscene to Catholics is illegal. Tama ba to sa inyo?). Article 201 is a stupid law. Ginagamit lang yan nang mga pulitiko at mga nanghihingi nang “tong.”

Lastyly “But at the end of the day, a woman is violated.”

Maybe you should watch more porn as you are confused. If you’ve ever seen prostitutes begging a foreigners to pay them for sex, you wouldn’t say that a woman is violated in prostitution or in porn. I don’t know if you’re a woman Op3 but don’t ever presume to speak for all women.

@reyna elena- read yuga’s entry carefully on http://www.yugatech.com/blog/blogosphere/here-lies-the-misinformation/

There was NO ARREST.

noemi, sweetheart: trust me, i lost a lot of friends during the dictatorship but a senator ordering the arrest of anybody is very reminiscent of martial law egalement dictatorship.

i understand there is search warrant: sure there was a warrant, but explain to me sweetheart coz i just don’t git it what was HIS crime? he pissed off Loren?

also: who are you? are you LOREN LEGARDA?

you blanketed the internet with your trackbacks to the warrior lawyer – you must must just be looking for traffic?

i’m not going to defend boy bastos although i have already seen big named people in the US taunt George Bush but here, i believe the issue is that how could Loren just order the arrest of anybody for that matter just because it pissed her off? isn’t that very martial lawsh? she’s already acting like a dictator! is this what we’re going to see once she becomes a president? this should scare the shit out of us! you just can’t order an arrest to anyone when there is no crime – that’s the least that in know even if i am not a lawyer. i think that’s the real issue – loren’s being a dictator!

No, we’re not under martial law.

During martial law, Macoy allowed (or promoted?) sexy films, which redefined English by giving a new meaning to “bold.”

“It is therefore safe to say that the community knows obscenity when it sees it. Hence, the actions taken to shut Boy Bastos down.”

The problem here is that the opinion of the community is dictated by the elite. Whether they be priests, politicians, TV personalities or newspaper columnists. The fact that there was a warrant but no apparent crime undermines the purpose of the law, any law. Because it was “ordered” by a Senator, signed by an unnamed judge and then nothing came of it because the NBI had no law to enforce… this will affect any future cyber laws that will be passed in this country. Was there even a restraining order? Why confiscate private property, why shut a site down. What was the basis? Everything vague, vague, and from a Senator who’s supposed to champion a much-needed Internet bill, a law maker, period.

People who say or imply it is Verzos’s fault do not get it: Verzo is irresponsible, we know it, everyone knows it, even his own mother knows it. But he is not supposed to the responsible one, Legarda is. Tsk.

@kevin – Even if your site is hosted outside the country, the datacenter can still shut down your site upon presentation of a court order. The TOS is flexible. A site can be shut down at the discretion of the webhost, datacenter etc.

Challenging ito a… how about just blog about the poor people or crimes here in the philippines? or baka later on, bawal na rin yan; kaya the government is trying to create a kind of “media”(?) to uplift the situation of the philippines…

Curious also, pano ung FHM adult mags un ah!hlabag din ba sa pornography bill.
may post nga rin ako bout dito eh..haha.

Thanks for the tips. I will keep them in mind.

Yes it must be it. Alexa says boybastos is #124 now in the Philippines.

Hindi kaya ang site na tinutukoy nya jan eh ung boybastos?

Source: http://thoughtsinbinary.com/?page_id=2

“In 2006 one of my sites reached the Top 100 Philippine Sites in Alexa’s rating. I will keep that site secret from this blog because God might see that I created that site and it might cost me my ticket to paradise.”

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Pano kaya ung ibang porn site na blog, magiging lesson na kaya sa kanila ang nangyari kay BoyBastos?

It was easy tracking mark verzo. His domain resolves to bembang and it all falls in line. He is even hosted at softlayer. He could had gotten away if he just keep his mouth shut. I mean you dont go on a pissing contest with a popular senator in your country. You can give the finger to our president but not with popular senator or a possible future president.

I still cant believe he took the word boy bastos seriously. It wouldnt had escalated to that level if he put some disclaimer on his site or just shut it down for about a week until loren is finished with her expose and move on another thing. Loren got mad because the dude didnt shut up and went all geeky and thepiratebay mentality. One piece of advice, you are not in a european country where they take good care of their criminals. You are in the philippines. and you deserve what you got.

I have dealt with the NBI before (back when they dont even have a computer fraud division) Its not that much pretty. When under their custody be respectful but not to the point of incriminating yourself. Always answer with po and opo. You can engage in a chitchat with them but do not chitchat about the crime. They will respect your rights as long as you respect them first. Remember most of them are lawyers/accountants, so they know some social engineering though. or better DO NOT TALK UNTIL YOU HAVE A LAWYER WITH YOU.