MANILA, Philippines — A Manila court has denied the motion for partial reconsideration filed by Rappler CEO and Executive Editor Maria Ressa and former researcher and writer Reynaldo Santos Jr. of their cyber libel conviction.
A 13-page decision released by the Regional Trial Court Branch 46 and signed by Presiding Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa, said the motion filed by Santos and Ressa was denied for “lack of merit.”
“In view of the foregoing, the Motion for Partial Reconsideration filed by Accused Reynaldo Santos Jr. and Maria Angelita Ressa is denied for lack of merit,” the decision, which was signed on Friday, read.
Ressa and Santos were found guilty of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act specifically for cyber libel.
The subject of the cyber libel case against the two was a 2012 article written by Santos claiming that businessman Wilfredo Keng lent his sports utility vehicle to then Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Keng filed the cyber libel complaint in 2017, which was five years after the article was first posted and three years after it was supposedly reposted due to typographical error.
Ressa and Santos are the first journalists to be found guilty of cyber libel.