Hysterics, theatrics, won’t save Ressa

WHEN it rains, it pours, so the saying goes and in the case of Rappler and its Chief Executive Officer, Maria Angelita Aycardo Ressa, better known as ‘Maria Ressa,’ the floodgate of woes has just been opened on them.

First was the affirmation last June 28, 2022 by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) of its 2018 order cancelling the corporate registration of Rappler Philippines and Rappler Holdings, Inc. The second was the rejection by the Court of Appeals last July 8, 2022, of Ressa’s appeal to have her and her reporter’s conviction for cyber libel in June 2020, filed by an aggrieved businessman the year previously.

But all throughout, instead of showing repentance and humility for all the self-inflicted damage she has inflicted on herself and Rappler, Ressa remains defiant, arrogant and yes, devious.

The deviousness lies on the fact that instead of facing up and controverting the  evidence against her and Rappler presented and validated during the trial proper at the lower courts, Ressa, very much like the propagandists of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), have resorted to hysterics and theatrics, sticking to her narrative that what was on trial is not her irresponsible conduct as a ‘journalist’ but press freedom in the Philippines and that her legal woes are due to the ‘vendetta’ being waged by the Duterte administration against ‘independent media’ personified by Rappler.

Indeed, after her conviction by the Manila Regional Trial Court in 2020 for cyber libel, she blurted out that ‘press freedom is dead’ in the country and immediately blamed the Duterte administration for the conviction that was handed out, we stressed, by a separate branch of government.

The deviousness also lies in the fact that for all her pratting, Ressa’s statements aimed not to inform but to, well, ‘entertain’ thru the obfuscation of facts, the foreign media, including her “patrons” particularly in the US Democratic Party and whose interest in the Philippines is farthest from promoting press freedom.

For as we have seen, Ressa appears to have also adopted the CPP’s most potent ‘weapon’ when hauled before the court—resorting to pressure tactic by bringing her appeal mainly before the court of public opinion and using the gullible sections of the media to take the cudgel of ‘defending’ her by blindly following her narrative.

That such tactic actually insults the rule of law in the country and is an affront to our sovereignty each time foreigners criticized our judicial system, is of no consequence to people like Ressa. Like spoiled brats, it is always about getting what they want—and let due process be damned.

Nevertheless, it is likely that all of Ressa’s deceptions and lies are finally catching up with her as most people believe.

Whatever would be the result of her running to the Supreme Court to delay what most people believe is the “inevitable”—her final conviction—it has nothing to do about the Philippine press under threat or of press freedom and our other civil rights being in peril.

It all boils down to our legal process functioning on behalf of those seeking justice from the abuses of self-righteous people like Ressa and questionable media entities like Rappler.