‘Chilling development,’ say critics

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MALACAÑANG yesterday kept its distance from the Manila court guilty verdict on Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos Jr., as Presidential spokesman Harry Roque maintained that President Duterte has always been against the suppression of press freedom.

Ressa and Santos were found guilty of cyber libel over a May 2012 article that linked businessman Wilfredo Keng to alleged illegal activities.

Roque said government critics should not pin the blame on Ressa’s and Santos’ legal predicament on the Duterte administration since the Anti-Cybercrime Law was enacted in 2012 during the incumbency of former president Simeon Benigno Aquino III.

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He reiterated that Malacañang had nothing to do with the case since this was filed by a private individual.

In September 2019, President Duterte appointed Patricia C. Keng a member of the Philippine Commission on Women (PCW), representing the youth sector. The PCW is an agency under the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG). Her appointment was signed on September 16.

Roque said the President had always been supportive of free speech and a free press and had not even filed a single libel case since he entered public service several decades ago.

“Naniniwala po siya sa malayang pag-iisip at pananalita at ang paninindigan niya – ang taong-gobyerno hindi dapat onion skinned. Kinakailangan hinaharap ang puna ng taumbayan lalo na kung ito ay nanggagaling sa ating media (He believes in free thinking and speech and believes that those in government should not be onion-skinned. They should face the criticisms of the public especially those from media),” Roque said.

He said Duterte, when he was still the mayor of Davao City, had once helped Davao-based journalist Alexander Adonis after he was convicted for a libel case filed by the late speaker Prospero Nograles.

He said the President had also supported Adoni’s move to decriminalize libel.

Senate President Vicente Sotto III reminded the public that “court decisions are based on evidence and law. Ms. Ressa has all the benefits of appeal to the higher courts.”

Administration Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said the court decided on the cyber libel case filed against Ressa and Santos based on evidence and it is wrong to drag the administration into the issue.

“It is so foul on the part of the critics to keep on dragging the Duterte administration into this issue,” Dela Rosa said.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said under the country’s judicial system, a guilty verdict does not mean an end in due process since Ressa can always bring her case to higher courts.

“On the issue of freedom of the press, which is guaranteed under our Constitution, I’m sure the Supreme Court will address and rule on the issue of constitutionality, if it is not addressed by the Court of Appeals to the satisfaction of both Ms. Ressa and Mr. Santos,” Lacson said.

CHILLING DEVELOPMENT

Vice President Leni Robredo said the Manila court’s guilty ruling was “a chilling development” that threatens the freedoms that Filipinos enjoy under the Constitution.

“A threat to the freedom of even a single Filipino is a threat to all of our freedoms. If the law and our government institutions can be brought to bear upon Ms. Ressa, then we should be wary of what this means to the freedoms of ordinary citizens,” Robredo said.

She said the administration has successfully twisted the country’s laws to silence critical media and groups.

“We must remember that this is merely the latest instance of law being utilized to muzzle our free press. Silencing, harassing, and weaponizing law against the media sends a clear message to every dissenting voice: Keep quiet or you are next,” Robredo said.

Robredo said that while government allies have been dauntless in gagging the media, “it is incumbent upon the press, and every free Filipino, to hold fast to our courage and not be cowed into silence. If anything, this must only firm up our resolve as we work towards a humane, truthful, and law-abiding society.”

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Sen. Francis Pangilinan said the guilty decision came as a no surprise to him under the present administration. “The silencing of critics and the attack on the media have been going on for three years now. If they think this conviction and the effort to stifle dissent will silence  those critical of this administration, then I say to them, no way!” Pangilinan said.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros shared Robredo’s position, lamenting that the administration has weaponized the law against journalists doing unbiased reporting on extrajudicial killings in the country. Hontiveros said the first to ex perience the government’s unfair interpretation of laws was ABS-CBN Corporation when it was ordered to stop operations by the National Telecommunications Commission last May 5 even as top NTC officials earlier assured the  network of a temporary permit to operate while its franchise renewal was being tackled in Congress.

“Today’s (Monday’) conviction sends a chilling message to all: Kung kritiko ka, puwede kang ipasara at puwede kang patahimikin. I urge everyone to speak out. Dumarami tayo. We are complicit if we are silent. Takot sila, kaya nila tayo pinapatahimik (Today’s conviction sends a chilling message to all: If you are a critic [of this administration] they can have you closed and silenced. I urge everyone to speak out. We are complicit if we are silent. They are afraid of something that’s why we are being silenced),” Hontiveros said.

Detained Sen. Leila De Lima said the court’s decision is “echoed Robredo and Hontiveros.

“They will not stop at going after critics and human rights defenders. To them, journalists, too, must be silenced. But we will not allow it,” De Lima said in a dispatch from the PNP Custodial Center in Crame where she has been detained on drug charges since February 2017.

Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV said the guilty verdict was an “obvious attack against freedom of the press.” “Maria Ressa’s conviction for cyber libel is an attack against our democracy itself. We are now but a few steps away from martial law,” Trillanes said.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman and assistant minority leader and partylist Rep. France Castro (Alliance of Concerned Teachers) said the guilty ruling is only the latest development in the administration’s continuing campaign to silence critical members of the media.

“The conviction is a tragic commentary on the judiciary’s succumbing to the repressive campaign of the Executive. Ressa has been the victim of the Duterte administration’s vindictive prosecution for pursuing critical advocacy against what she perceives as flawed policies of the administration,” Lagman said.

The Albay congressman, a trial lawyer and human rights advocate before joining politics, said the case against the two journalists should have been junked outright because the alleged offense was supposedly committed before cyber libel was deemed a crime. “The purported cyber libel for which Ressa is charged with was allegedly published or committed in May 2012 but the case was filed in 2017 or only five years later.

Verily, it has prescribed,” he said citing a provision of the Revised Penal Code that there is a one-year prescription for a crime committed through a computer system. Lagman said it is not only Ressa who faces incarceration but also “critical reportage and legitimate dissent” because the Manila court’s decision would hold press freedom hostage. Castro warned that the conviction of the two journalists signal more troubling times for the press and human rights defenders in light of the looming passage of the Anti-Terrorism bill and the shutdown of mass media giant ABS-CBN.

“The guilty verdict … is the Duterte administration’s attack against press freedom and freedom of speech of the people. It is a clear message from the Duterte administration that it will use all powers to persecute and silence those who continue to voice out criticisms against this administration,” Castro said.

TEST RUN  

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) slammed the decision of the Manila court’s decision and said this would now be considered as a “test run” by the administration to silence the media. In a statement, the NUJP said it believes that the implications of the decision of the Manila RTC go beyond Ressa and Santos, as well as of Rappler.

“The decision basically affirms  the State’s manipulation and weaponization of the law to stifle  criticism and dissent,” said NUJP.

“In effect, the trial was a test run for the latest weapon the State can now wield to intimidate and silence not only the media, but all citizens who call out government abuse,” it added. The union of press workers said such a scenario is probable considering that “the most powerful man in the land abhors criticism and dissent.”

“Coupled with a proposed anti-terror law that practically cancels all the protections guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, we could be looking at the death of freedom as we know it,” said NUJP. The NUJP said the conviction of Ressa will not be the end of press freedom as journalists are determined to defend it.

“The community of independent Filipino journalists and, more importantly, the Filipino people, have proven ourselves capable of defending our rights and liberties,” it stressed, adding: “This is true: Tyrants come and go; freedom, justice, and truth will prevail.” — with Raymond Africa, Peter Tabingo and Gerard Naval

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