MANILA, Philippines — Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa was released after posting a P90,000 bail before the Pasig Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 265 on Friday.
Ressa was earlier arrested after arriving from San Francisco, California, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in connection with an alleged violation of the Anti-Dummy Law.
The arrest warrant was issued by Judge Acerey Pacheco of the Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 265, as seen in a Facebook livestream of the news website Rappler.
READ: Rappler’s Ressa arrested at Naia
Other Rappler executives Manuel Ayala, Nico Jose Nolledo, Glenda Gloria, James Bitangca, Felicia Atienza and James Velasquez were also charged with the same violation.
The charges stemmed from a complaint filed last year by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which said that Rappler violated the Anti-Dummy Law for issuing Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to foreign corporation Omidyar Network Fund, LCC.
A PDR is a security which “grants the holder the right to the delivery of sale of the underlying share,” but are “not evidences or statements nor certificates of ownership of a corporation,” according to Lorenzo Delgado’s “Philippine Depositary Receipts: Mass Media’s Existing or Emerging Loophole To Constitutionally Mandated Full Filipino Ownership?”
The Anti-Dummy Law prohibits foreigners from intervening in any “nationalized activity” such as the operation of a media company, which should have 100 percent Filipino control as stated under the 1987 Constitution.
READ: Rappler sued for violating anti-dummy law in Pasig court
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018 revoked Rappler’s license to operate for allegedly violating the constitutional cap on foreign ownership. /muf
READ: SEC orders Rappler to shut down