Palace says Duterte has no links with complainant in Maria Ressa's libel case

President Rodrigo Duterte had no links with the businessman who filed a cyber libel complaint against Rappler CEO Maria Ressa which became the basis for her arrest last week, Malacañang said Monday.

Duterte said on February 14 that he does not know Wilfredo Keng nor is familiar with the complaint, prompting anti-administration Pinoy Ako Blog on Sunday to post news articles about the activities of Keng's Century Peak Metals Holding Corp., which bagged a government reclamation project in Cavite.   

"Even assuming that those facts you stated are correct, it doesn’t follow that the President will know this particular person," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said at a news conference.

"You must remember that the policy of the President is he does not interfere with the department heads relative to their governance of their departments," he said.

Panelo said the President only interferes once there is a report of corruption in connection with any deals in government.

Ressa was charged in connection with a story Rappler published in 2012—months before the Cybercrime Prevention Act was enacted—and updated in 2014. The story cited an "intelligence report" linking businessman Wilfredo Keng to human trafficking and drug smuggling.

Keng, whose camp denied last week that he was connected to Duterte, filed the complaint before the National Bureau of Investigation in 2017.

Despite initially deciding it will not pursue a case, the bureau transmitted its findings to the Department of Justice for preliminary investigation last year. State prosecutors indicted Ressa and the author of the story last month.

The case is now pending before a court in Manila which issued an arrest warrant against her on February 12. She stayed overnight at the NBI headquarters in Manila following her arrest on February 13 and posted bail the next day for her temporary freedom.

Journalists and media watchdog groups have called Ressa's arrest an act of harassment and a demonstration of the Duterte administration's "intolerance of criticism." The Palace rejected the allegations.  —LDF, GMA News