Palace won’t allow US to meddle in Ressa’s case

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang on Wednesday said that it wouldn’t allow the United States to meddle in Rappler CEO Maria Ressa’s cyber libel case.

In an interview with Radyo Inquirer, presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that President Rodrigo Duterte wouldn’t accept the United States to get in the way of the case after a Manila court meted a guilty verdict against Ressa and researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr.

“Mayroon po kaming gumaganang sistemang legal, bumalik na po sana yung init ng pagkakaibigan ng Amerika (at Pilipinas) itong mga punang ito ay hindi po nakakatulong sa pagkakaibigan ng Pilipinas at Amerika. Dahil puwede pong isipin ng Presidente, itong panghihimasok, ito po ay isang hatol na hindi katiwa-tiwala ang mga hukuman sa Pilipinas at hindi naman po tatanggapin ng ating Presidente yan,” said Roque.

(We have a working legal system, and I hope the warm friendship between the United States and the Philippines return because these statements are not helping in the relationship between the two countries. The President may think, this intrusion, that through this verdict that the courts here in the Philippines aren’t trustworthy and the President won’t accept that.)

The US Department of State, through spokesperson Morgan Ortagus, said that the United States is concerned about the trial court’s verdict against Ressa and Santos.

Ortagus added that the US calls for “resolution of the case in a way that reinforces the US and Philippines’ long shared commitment to freedom of expression, including for members of the press.”

Former US State Secretary Hillary Clinton also slammed the Manila court’s guilty verdict saying Ressa was convicted for “doing her job.”

“We must fiercely protect attacks on the press. They are attacks on democracy,” posted Clinton on Twitter.

The Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 convicted Ressa and Santos, a former Rappler researcher, of cyber libel over a case involving businessman Wilfredo Keng.

The subject of the case was a 2012 article that Santos wrote that claimed Keng lent his sports utility vehicle to then Chief Justice Renato Corona and that same piece cited an intelligence report that the businessman was under surveillance by the National Security Council for alleged involvement in human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Keng filed the complaint in 2017, five years the article was first posted and three years after it was supposedly reposted due to a typographical error.

Roque said that the United States should not complain about the guilty verdict on Ressa and Santos since the Manila court was just applying the due legal process.

“‘Wag po kayong magreklamo dahil inapply lang ng hukom yoong jurisprudence na kailangan naman ay mayroong some kind of diligence in reporting, hindi pupwede na bara-bara lang,” said Roque.

(You shouldn’t complain because the court merely applied the right jurisprudence and we should also have some kind of diligence in reporting and that we shouldn’t do it haphazardly.)