WATCH out for video-capable phones if you?re going out on a date on Valentine?s Day, or you might end up being a ?sex-scandal? victim, an official warns.

?Your lover today may be your blackmailer tomorrow,? said Party-List Rep Irwin Tieng, principal author of a bill criminalizing the taking and possession of indecent video clips.

Tieng says his office has been monitoring cases of people spreading indecent video clips through the Internet or Bluetooth, and apparently to get back at their lovers for breaking up with them.

In some cases, he says, motel operators or their staff are responsible for taping and then spreading the same clips.

Tieng?s House Bill 4315 criminalizes the use of mobile phones or video cameras to record intimate acts, and proposes a penalty of up to six years in jail and up to P500,000 in fines. Roy Pelovello