(Eagle News) — Rappler on Friday slammed the administration for its alleged use of government resources to go after the media entity.
“The Duterte administration is mustering state resources at the risk of grave embarrassment and accusations of arbitrariness and brazen harassment. What is this government so afraid of?” Rappler said in a statement posted on its site.
The statement came after the National Bureau of Investigation filed a cyber-libel complaint against Rappler executive editor Maria Ressa, former Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr., and Rappler directors and officers Manuel Ayala, Nico Jose Nolledo, Glenda Gloria, James Bitanga, Felicia Atienza, Dan Alber De Padua, and Jose Maria G. Hofilena.
The complaint stems from an article Rappler published in 2012 and which alleged that businessman Wilfredo Keng lent his sport utility vehicle to then-Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was facing an impeachment trial at that time.
Citing an intelligence report, the article also detailed what it said were Keng’s “shady deals.”
According to Rappler, the National Bureau of Investigation has already dismissed the cyber-libel complaint against its officers and former reporter.
For this, the NBI’s legal and evaluation service, it said, gave credence to their defense that the one-year prescriptive period for libel had lapsed from the date of publication of the article, and that the Cybercrime Prevention Act could not be applied retroactively.
According to Rappler, the NBI did not give them any notice about the decision being overturned, with high-ranking NBI officials refusing to discuss the matter with them.
“Why would the NBI risk its credibility and reputation, and reverse its earlier ruling?Are there instructions from higher-ups whom NBI officials could not say no to?” Rappler asked.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has revoked Rappler’s business to operate following its alleged violation of constitutional restrictions on foreign media ownership.
Rappler, which also faces a tax evasion case, has appealed the decision.