Ressa: ‘Information ops now moving against me’

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa on Wednesday said that "information operations" were moving against her, citing "ties that bind" the businessman who filed the cyber libel suit against her and the Duterte administration.

"Keng's lawyers and the Palace have similar messaging: it's the media attacking a private individual. This isn't true. Please help me spread my response below," Ressa said in a series of tweets.

(1/6) Information operations now moving against me, cementing "journalist=criminal." Keng's lawyers and the Palace have similar messaging: it's the media attacking a "private individual. This isn't true. Please help me spread my response below. @rapplerdotcom #CourageON

— Maria Ressa (@mariaressa) June 16, 2020

On Monday, Ressa and Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. were convicted of cyber libel over a 2012 article that cites an "intelligence report" linking businessman Wilfredo Keng to criminal activities.

The publication of the article predated the enactment of the cyber libel law, but the judge considered an "updated" version of the article as a "republication" in meting out the conviction. Rappler said the update just corrected a typographical error. A Rappler executive has also explained that Ressa had no hand in the article.

In her tweets, Ressa said that the intelligence report had been vetted by a senior investigative journalist, Aries Rufo, who passed away in 2015.

She added that "not all intel reports are equal," saying that a document provided by Keng's lawyers had been signed by an official who had been involved in a graft suit.

"One PDEA document sent by Keng's lawyers was signed by an officer embroiled in a graft suit... that, incidentally, involved the use of luxury vehicles in anti-drug operations from January to June 2013," Ressa said.

"He was later convicted (although given the judgement against me, I now take that with a grain of salt)," she added.

The Rappler CEO further said that Keng is not just "a private businessman," referring to the government project was awarded to a unit of the businessman's company a year after the case was filed.

Keng's Century Peak Metals Holding Corporation bagged a government reclamation project in Cavite in 2018.

Ressa also said that Keng has ties to Huang Rulun, a Chinese billionaire praised by President Rodrigo Duterte for donating P1.4 billion for the construction of two huge drug rehabilitation centers in the Philippines. 

The Palace has denied that Duterte has links with Keng. Keng's camp has also denied links to the President. — Joahna Lei Casilao/BM, GMA News