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Ressa submits counter-affidavit to cyber libel complaint at DOJ


Rappler CEO Maria Ressa appeared before prosecutors Tuesday at the Department of Justice (DOJ) to subscribe to her counter-affidavit to the cyber libel complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) against the online news site.

 

 

"I appeal to the men and women of the Department of Justice, the good men and women who are here: they should be doing the due diligence so that they don't publicly malign anyone or subject innocent people to public trials without any due process," Ressa said.

"I'm glad to go through this process and hopefully have nuisance cases, harassment suits dropped," she continued. "There's no basis for this charge."

Lawyers from the Disini & Disini law firm will file the counter-affidavit to the case itself with the board of directors of Rappler at 2 p.m. on Wednesday. Ressa will not be present as she will be at the launch of Reporters Sans Frontières' 2018 World Press Freedom Index in Seoul, South Korea.

Businessman Wilfredo Keng lodged a complaint after a Rappler story—“CJ using SUVs of ‘controversial’ businessmen”—supposedly linked him to human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Ressa, in a prior counter-affidavit, said the one-year prescription period for libel had expired by the time Keng made his complaint.

"The continuing charge of cyber libel that, if any of our websites publishes something once, that it could continue, that you could have multiple counts of libel against it, that is ground-breaking, that's breaking the law," Ressa commented Tuesday.

Ex-Rappler reporter Reynaldo Santos Jr., the writer of the article, said the Cybercrime Law of 2012 came into effect four months after the report was published.

According to Article 4 of the New Civil Code, the retroactive application of a law is prohibited unless otherwise stated.

"This particular article itself is protected under the Constitution. It's protected under the freedom of the press, the freedom of expression, and the freedom of information," Ressa said.

She called the case "ludicrous" and "ridiculous," in addition to citing the NBI's legal team's earlier pronouncement that "there was no case" as far as the cyber libel suit was concerned.

The DOJ and NBI earlier denied that they reversed an earlier decision to not file cyber libel complaints against Rappler, instead claiming there was a "premature disclosure" of information that the bureau was not filing a complaint.

Ressa was not present during the hearing on the Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR) P133-million tax evasion case against Rappler and Rappler Holdings Corporation at the DOJ, also on Tuesday.

Present instead at the hearing were lawyers for Rappler executives and a team from the BIR.

The tax agency accuses RHC of failing failure to pay an aggregate tax liability of P133,841,305.75, despite allegedly profiting in 2015 from the sale of Philippine Depository Receipts (PDR) to two foreign judicial entities.

Ressa will be present when Rappler files its counter-affidavit on May 7. — BM, GMA News

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