PRESIDENT Duterte says Rappler chief operating officer Maria Ressa is a “fraud” and promised to expose her once government completes gathering its supposed evidence against her.
The President, in a recorded address that was aired past midnight Wednesday, was trashing out some members of the media industry on their reporting of alleged corruption in government when he took a shot at Ressa, whose online news agency has been publishing articles on alleged graft in government.
“Ressa is a fraud, believe me. Give us time. Too early for you to enjoy those awards of yours. You are a fraud actually. We are just compiling at this stage. And someday in bold letters, we will show your incongruity. You are a fraud,” Duterte said.
Reacting to the President’s statement, Ressa said on Twitter: “Was he referring to me?
Maybe the President is just seeing too much fraud from where he sits.”
On Rappler’s corruption stories, Ressa said: “4 years: spewing hate on social media, manipulating Filipinos, weaponizing the law. We call a spade a spade.”
Also during his speech, Duterte complained some members of the government had been judged harshly, including leaders of agencies involved in the government’s response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) like retired generals and now Cabinet members Delfin Lorenzana of the Department of Defense, Eduardo Año of the Department of Interior and Local Government, and Carlito Galvez Jr. of the National Task Force on COVID-19, due to articles that have come out in numerous media channels.
“One of these days we will also judge you in the same way and with more ferocity,” he warned media practitioners whom he claimed have “dirty minds.”
“You will have a dose of your own medicine one of these days. I am not threatening you.
Go ahead and expose anything about corruption. I said if it’s big, I will resign,” he added in mixed Filipino and English.
Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. have been convicted for cyber libel charges by a Manila Regional Trial Court in connection with an article that Rappler published in 2012 linking businessman Wilfredo Keng to alleged human trafficking and drug smuggling activities.
Ressa and Santos have appealed the decision.
