No Palace hand in OSG request for SEC to probe Rappler — Calida

Solicitor General Jose Calida on Tuesday said Malacañang had no involvement in his request for the Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate Rappler.

“Definitely not. Siguro kilala niyo naman ako. I do things on my own. I do not take orders from anyone,” Calida told reporters ahead of the oral arguments on the petitions against the Mindanao martial law extension at the Supreme Court.

At the same time, Calida said the decision of the SEC to revoke the incorporation papers of the online news site was about following the “rule of law.”

"If you engage in the business of mass media you have to comply with the constitutional and statutory regulations because no one is above the law, even a powerful media. This is about the rule of law,” Calida told reporters when asked to react on journalist groups’ concerns that the decision was an attack on press freedom.

“If you read the SEC decision, it’s not just ownership but control. There must be no control, not even one percent. It should be zero percent,” he added.

Calida said he asked the SEC in December 2016 to probe Rappler after reading the newspaper articles of former ambassador to Cyprus and Greece Rigoberto Tiglao, who disclosed in October 2016 that two American companies, Omidyar Network, Inc. and North Base Media, in 2015 “made substantial investments” in Rappler.

After more than a year, the SEC ruled on January 11 that Rappler violated the constitutional provision against foreign ownership in mass media when it welcomed Omidyar Network of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar as an investor in the online mass media outlet.

The corporate regulator said Rappler also issued derivatives to North Base Media in 2015. But the derivatives did not carry the same terms as that of Omidyar's.

"Because Omidyar was the later purchaser ... it caused the insertion of certain provisions that assure control over other PDR Holders, and also over the corporate policies of Rappler Inc. and its alter ego Rappler Holdings Corporation," the SEC said.

Rappler questioned the timing of the decision, labeling it as harassment.

The media outfit said it would contest the decision before the courts. Calida said he is prepared to defend the ruling. — RSJ, GMA News