Despite rejected plea, Rappler lauds CA ruling

Even if the Court of Appeals (CA) had rejected their plea, the chief executive of Rappler hailed the CA’s ruling on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) revocation order against their registration.

The CA Special 12th Division, in its 72-page ruling penned by Associate Justice Rafael Antonio Santos, has dismissed Rappler’s petition for review.

But Rappler CEO Maria Ressa pointed out that the CA sided with them on three issues—-on the revocation of their certificate, on the SEC’s rules and practices, and on the reinvestigation of the case.

Last resort

In the ruling, the CA said that the SEC has been pursuing “a policy that the revocation of the certificate of registration should be the last resort.”

The SEC was mandated to give incorporators a “reasonable time within which to correct or modify the objectionable portions of their articles of incorporation or amendment thereof,” the court said.

In an ambush interview at the Department of Justice, Ressa said “the SEC’s
revocation of our certificate of incorporation is wrong.”

“Omidyar never exercised its right to the allegedly questionable clause in its Philippine Depositary Receipt (PDR) and later even waived its right under that clause, according to the CA,” Ressa told reporters.

Not a violation

In addition, Ressa noted that the CA agreed with Rappler’s argument that the SEC failed to apply its own rules and practices to the online news website.

The CA, however, said “it does not, by itself, amount to a violation of procedural due process.”

For Ressa, the SEC “went against the mandate of the law by not giving Rappler an opportunity to amend or correct any perceived error before revoking its certificate of incorporation.”

Reinvestigation

On the other hand, Ressa pointed out that the CA told the SEC to reinvestigate the case since American firm Omidyar Network has already turned over all of its investments to the Rappler staff.

The CA, in its ruling, said the SEC should reinvestigate Rappler’s case, noting that circumstances have changed since American firm Omidyar Network has already donated all of its investments to the Rappler staff.

Stressing that media ownership should be free from foreign control, the SEC accused Rappler of violating the 1987 Constitution by issuing Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDR) to Omidyar Network.

Foreign control

However, days after the SEC’s order, Omidyar Network donated all of its $1.5 million worth of PDRs to 14 Rappler managers.

The CA said that “in view of the donation made by Omidyar of all the Omidyar PDR to the Rappler staff, the negative foreign control found objectionable by the SEC appears to have been permanently removed.”

In light of the CA’s ruling, Ressa said it is still “business as usual.”

“We hoped for the best decision, as Rappler is – on paper and in reality – a completely Fiipino-owned company,” Ressa told reporters, adding that they would leave the matter now to the SEC.