(Eagle News)–President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday, Feb. 14, denied Maria Ressa’s arrest for cyber libel was an attack on press freedom.
“Aysusmaryosep. Far from it,” Duterte said when told some international organizations were saying this.
According to Duterte, he did not know Ressa had been arrested.
He said he did not even know the details, nor did he know Wilfredo Keng, the private complainant in the cyber libel case against Ressa, Rappler Inc., and former reporter Reynaldo Santos.
“Pero sabihin mo na, ‘What can you say?’ I cannot say anything. I have yet to read. May nag-sabi sa stage kanina but same answer. I cannot give you an opinion or say anything,” Duterte said.
Keng’s charges stem from a 2012 Rappler article that he said defamed him.
The article, which described him as a “controversial” businessman with supposed links to human trafficking, illegal drugs and murder, was edited in 2014.
In ruling there was probable cause for the cyber libel charges against Ressa, Rappler Inc. and Santos, the Department of Justice debunked their arguments the Cybercrime Prevention Act could no longer apply.
The DOJ said that while the May 2012 publication was not covered by the law enacted only in September of that year, the 2014 editing was covered by the same, based on the “multiple publication rule” put forward by the Supreme Court in a previous ruling that says that modification and alteration of an article translates to a separate offense from the publication itself of the article, if such is libelous.
The DOJ also denied Ressa, Rappler and Santos could no longer be charged because the one-year prescriptive period for libel had expired.
The DOJ said in the first place, the three have been charged with cyber libel, which, according to the Cybercrime Prevention Act itself, has a punishment of a degree higher than libel.
Based on Republic Act 3326 that governs special laws such as cyber libel, the DOJ said the prescriptive period of such is 12 years.