MANILA, Philippines — Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo on Friday chided Rappler CEO Maria Ressa for “complaining” that she was arrested after deplaning at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
“She’s complaining again that she’s being arrested. All are equal before the law. She wants to be treated differently—that cannot be done,” Panelo said.
“All warrants of arrest issued by competent courts are to be served the way it was served to her this morning,” Panelo, also the presidential chief legal counsel, added.
READ: Fresh off plane, Rappler’s Ressa booked by Pasig police
Pasig City police early morning Friday went to Manila’s main airport to serve the warrant of arrest issued by Pasig Regional Trial Court Branch 265 over Rappler’s alleged violation of the anti-dummy law.
Cops fetched Ressa from the airport and brought her to the Pasig police headquarters to undergo booking procedure and be allowed to post the P90,000-bail.
“I was treated very well by the Pasig police, but again let’s not confuse good treatment with the kinds of impact this has on the law. This is difficult,” Ressa told reporters.
Col. Bernard Banac, Philippine National Police spokesperson, also said in an interview with ANC’s “Headstart,” that there was no bias in the arrest of Ressa.
“Whenever we are tasked by the court to serve the warrant of arrest, then we do so without reservation,” he added.
Anti-dummy law violation
Panelo stressed that a court judge would have to determine whether there is probable cause for an arrest before a warrant is issued.
“[This] means due process has been observed. So she cannot be complaining that this is again a violation of press freedom,” he said, adding that the veteran journalist should concentrate on defeding herself in court.
“She cannot be always using the freedom of the press as an excuse to attack the administration,” Panelo also said.
The anti-dummy charge is the latest among the list of legal suits Ressa and her media company is facing.
According a report by The STAR, the case stemmed from the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ruling that ordered the cancelation of the certificate of incorporation of the online news site and Omidyar’s Philippine Depository Receipts.
Rappler is accused of violating the constitutional restrictions on ownership and control of mass media entities because it supposedly received a donation from Omidyar Network, a fund created by eBay founder and entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar.
PDRs are instruments that give foreign investors a passive economic interest in a Philippine company.
The Court of Appeals has ordered SEC to review Omidyar’s donation, and the legal effect of the “alleged supervening donation” on whether it has mitigated, if not cured, the violation the commission had earlier found.
Pasig RTC Branch 265 is handling the Anti-Dummy violation charge, while the case on the alleged violation of the Securities and Regulations Code was raffled off to Pasig RTC Branch 158.
Rappler noted that this is Ressa’s seventh active court case, while the media company’s 11th. In the past three months, the company had to shell out close to P2 million pesos for their employees’ bail and Ressa’s travel bond.
Criticisms of Ressa’s arrest
Tess Bacalla, Southeast Asian Press Alliance’s executive director, said the “absurd number” of slew of suits filed against Rappler is a “telltale indication of the government’s unabating harassment of an independent media that is committed to fulfilling its duty to inform the public while shining a light on public governance.”
Rights group Karapatan, for its part, said the charges against Rappler are a form of “reprisal” on the news outfit’s reportage on the government’s drug war. “This form of judicial harassment as well as the use of draconian laws criminalizing libel in broadcast, print and online media re direct violations on press freedom,” it added.
Rights lawyer Chel Dioko, meanwhile, said that the public should compare the power and time the government are devoting to harass Ressa and those reported drug lords connected to the Palace.
“Let us not fool ourselves, it looks like the Duterte government’s priority is to exact revenge on a critic rather than to curb illegal drugs,” he added in Filipino.
Florin Hilbay, the country’s former solicitor general, also raised that Ressa’s arrest is an attempt to divert attention from issues close to the Duterte government.
The arrest came in the same week the dismissed cop Eduardo Acierto made allegations that Duterte’s former presidential economic adviser Michael Yang is linked to illegal drugs, a claim vehemently shot down by the Palace and that government agencies are currently looking into.
Lawyer Romulo Macalintal, also an opposition bet, said that Ressa’s arrest upon her arrival on Philipine soil is a clear manifestation of harassment.
Rep. Gary Alejano (Magdalo party-list) said the Duterte government is focusing its attention on cases against its critics rather than protecting our fisherfolk in the West Philippine Sea, studying our loans from China and stopping the entry of illegal drugs into the country.