2nd cyber libel case of Rappler’s Ressa gets new judge

(FILE) Philippine journalist Maria Ressa waves to members of the media after attending a court hearing in Manila on July 22, 2020, on charges of tax evasion. – Ressa pleaded not guilty on July 22 to tax evasion, as President Rodrigo Duterte’s government faced growing calls to drop all charges against the veteran reporter. (Photo by Maria TAN / AFP)

MANILA, Philippines–The second cyber libel case against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa gets a new judge after Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 147 Judge Maria Amifaith S. Fider-Reyes inhibited from the case.

Fider-Reyes inhibited after her court received a threatening e-mail.

READ: Judge in Ressa case recuses self after threatening email

After her inhibition, records of the case were sent to the executive judge for a re-raffle and landed on the sala of Makati RTC Branch 148 Judge Andres Soriano.

Soriano was the judge who denied the Department of Justice’s “very urgent” motion for a hold departure order and refused to issue a warrant for the arrest of former Senator Antonio Trillanes

The government has been pushing to revive the coup d’ etat case against Trillanes after President Rodrigo Duterte revoked the amnesty given by his predecessor. Trillanes supposedly did not comply with the basic requirements to be entitled to an amnesty.

But Soriano contradicted the claim of the President himself saying Trillanes filed a proper application for amnesty and had admitted guilt for the offense.

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/MUF