The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a document dated June 28, Tuesday, upholding its earlier decision in 2018 to repeal the certificates of incorporation of Rappler.
The company registration and monitoring department of the SEC was instructed to invalidate the certificates of incorporation of Rappler from the records and system of the Commission, thus also canceling Rappler’s license to operate, as stated in the order signed by SEC chairperson Emilio Aquino; and Commissioners Javey Paul Francisco, Kelvin Lester Lee, Karlo Bello, and McJill Bryant Fernandez.
This came after the earlier accusations of supposed unconstitutional foreign control of Rappler, a media company that should have zero foreign control.
“We have existing legal remedies all the way up to the highest court of the land. It is business as usual for us since, in our view, this is not immediately executory without court approval,” Rappler clarifies in a statement today.
The SEC clarifies today that the recently released order by the Commission En Banc was just to execute its earlier decision.
The legal battle
The case started after the Office of the Solicitor General wrote a letter to the SEC dated December 2016, requesting the Commission to investigate Rappler over its PDRs.
Notably, the case started in the earlier years of the Duterte administration when Rappler also began to report on the cases of extrajudicial killings and other state-sponsored violence and intimidation.
On July 8, 2017, the SEC created a special panel to conduct a formal investigation. However, Rappler was not informed of the findings of the panel.
On July 15, 2018, just 5 months after the formal investigation, the SEC released an En Banc decision, voiding the Omidyar PDRs and revoking Rappler’s Certificate of Incorporation, thus canceling its license to operate. The decision was forwarded to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for appropriate investigation.
Rappler appealed the decision and raised the case to the Court of Appeals (CA).
In July 2018, the CA issued its decision, siding with the SEC which claims that the Rappler’s issuance of PDRs to Omidyar Network, a foreign investor to Rappler, constituted some amount of foreign control to the media network, which is prohibited under the constitution.
However, the CA also stated that when Omidyar waived and donated its PDRs to Rappler’s Filipino managers instead of Rappler as a media company, the unconstitutional foreign control found by the SEC was nullified.
The CA returned the case to the authority of the SEC, reminding the Commission to reevaluate the case of Rappler in consideration of the Corporation Code’s clause giving companies a reasonable grace period to amend their alleged deficiencies.
The CA reminded the SEC that license revocation must be the last resort.
In February 2021, the SEC asserted its earlier findings in 2018. Rappler filed a motion for reconsideration. The latest SEC order released yesterday was the action to that motion.
Press freedom under heightened attacks
The SEC order came after National Security Adviser (NSA) Hermogenes Esperon ordered the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) to block the websites of organizations allegedly linked to the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
READ: http://bitly.ws/svE3
Contrary to the allegations, only 7 sites were actually linked to the CPP. The majority of those ordered to be shut down included alternative media outlets, sectoral rights groups, and academic sites. Esperon did not present evidence for his accusations.
The CPP contended that this “Marcos Anti-Democracy (MAD) Firewall” is merely weaponizing “national security” to dismantle the opposition and the basic freedoms of the people, including press freedom.
READ: http://bitly.ws/svEm
In a statement released today, Bulatlat condemns the SEC order, stating, “Just like the National Telecommunications Commission’s order for the internet service provider to restrict access to the websites of Bulatlat and Pinoy Weekly, the SEC order against Rappler is yet another form of censorship.”
Atty. Neri Colmenares also expressed condemnation of the closure order of news outlet Rappler. Colmenares regards it as the Marcos-Duterte tandem’s attempt to further malign facts and conceal their sins against the people.
“A robust democracy allows journalists to do their job fearlessly to give people a space for engagement. Persisting on the shutdown of Rappler, ABS-CBN, and alternative media sites will only further destroy our pillars for checks and balances,” Atty. Colmenares added.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) also stated today, “It is clear now, if it had not been clear before, that the journalism community and the communities that we report about and for must stand together against government moves to harass, restrict and silence any of us to keep the press free for all of us.”
Numerous other cases of state intimidation and violence against journalists and the press occurred during the Duterte administration.
As of April 2022, 23 journalists have been slain under the Duterte regime.
Several accounts of red-tagging and harassment have also been recorded, alongside trumped-up, false charges.
For instance, campus publications SINAG, UPLB Perspective, and other alternative media were also red-tagged by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and/or the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) after reporting on state terrorism including the Bloody Sunday in Southern Tagalog, the killing of Chad Booc and other victims of New Bataan 5, among others.
READ: http://bitly.ws/svGh
Meanwhile, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. appointed Atty. Trixie Cruz-Angeles, a vlogger, as the incoming secretary of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), the leading communications arm of the Malacañang.
Apparent in her Facebook page and Youtube channel, Atty. Cruz-Angeles previously worked as a social media strategist at the PCOO from July 2017 to 2018 for the Duterte administration.
In her blogs and vlogs, Atty. Cruz-Angeles’ propaganda for the Duterte administration and attacks against the opposition and legitimate media outlets such as Rappler and its CEO, Maria Ressa, whose journalism was awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize, are her primary content.
As much as she belittles actual journalists, Atty. Cruz-Angeles would legitimize vloggers like her in news reportage. By doing so, the swayed people ignore critical and fact-based reports. Instead, the vlogs and blogs unguarded with a code of ethics became the norm in the palace and beyond.
Pro-Marcos vloggers and social media influencers formed the United Vloggers and Influencers of the Philippines (UVIP), their version of a press corps, to seek accreditation and to gain access to Malacañang akin to journalists despite the lack of proper professional background kept by the necessary formal ethical code of conduct.
The SEC order for closure comes two days before Duterte leaves his post and the entry of another Marcos into Malacañang.
Critical reportage and the alternative press is foreseen to be further stifled and hampered, alongside heightened state violence against the critics of the foreboding regime.
Nonetheless, Rappler maintains it will be “business as usual,” and they will “survive and thrive” amid groundless attempts of the state to deprive the people of their right to factual information. Now, more than ever, sectors and human rights groups persistently raise their calls to defend and uphold press freedom.
Featured image courtesy of Charles Salazar
