Rappler has been raising every issue from hell and back
against President Rodrigo Duterte.
The decision of the Securities and Exchange Commission to
close them down for a direct violation of the 1987 Constitution- that media outlets
should be controlled and reserved to Filipinos. And since that event, Rappler
has upped its tempo in their continued criticisms and attacks to the Duterte
administration.
But lo and behold, was it really the former Davao Mayor and
now President Rodrigo Roa Duterte who caused this debacle that has befallen
Maria Ressa’s Rappler? *
Rappler's CEO Maria Ressa (photo credit to owner) |
Manila Times resident columnist former Ambassador Rigoberto
D. Tiglao in his column today (March 2, 2018) titled “On Rappler’s woes, blame
this columnist, not Duterte” spilled the bean so to speak and said that it was
all his journalistic work that made everything possible for the SEC’s decision
against Rappler.
For purposes of full understanding and clarity ,we have
quoted in full the whole article written
by Mr. Tiglao for the convenience and knowledge of our reading public.
I AM so sick and
tired of Rappler and its editor Maria Ressa, so disgusted that they have been
badmouthing to the world President Duterte and our Republic as well, for
allegedly attacking press freedom, purportedly through the Securities and
Exchange Commission’s decision to close them down for violating the
Constitution that bans foreign money in media.
Don’t blame Duterte.
Blame this writer—for doing his job as a journalist and being an ardent
nationalist.
The facts:
I wrote on October
28, 2016, that Rappler was violating the Constitution by taking in about $2
million (P100 million) in foreign funds, a column titled: “Media firm Rappler
scorns Constitution by getting foreign money.” Why did I write that piece?
Because I got to be aware of it because Rappler boasted about it in its article
in 2015. I even asked Rappler’s main owner, a college chum — property tycoon
Benjamin Bitanga –why his media firm took in foreign money. He was apparently
misled by Ressa. He was told, he said, that the foreign money was for Rappler’s
Indonesian operations, so it wasn’t being used on Philippine territory, and
therefore complied with the Constitution.
*
• Solicitor General
Jose Calida obviously read my column and wrote the Securities and Exchange
Commission chairman Teresita Herbosa on December 14, 2016 and requested if, as
my article alleged, Rappler violated the constitutional ban on an foreign money
in a media firm.
• After a year of
investigation, during which Rappler was given the opportunity to debunk the
allegations, the SEC ruled on January 11 this year that the outfit indeed was
in violation of the Constitution. Puppets of Duterte, Ressa shrieked. But
Herbosa was appointed by President Aquino in April 2011. The SEC’s
commissioners have a seven-year term of office, and can be removed only by a
court’s order if a criminal case is filed against them.
You decide, dear
Reader, if it is a case of suppression of press freedom, as Rappler and the
Yellows as well as the Reds are shrieking about.
We journalists
incessantly complain that government does not do anything in response to our
exposés. Yet when government does something about it, those affected cry out
that they are being persecuted by government?
Would we prefer that
the Solicitor General remained unconcerned when he read about this violation of
the Constitution, or for the SEC to ignore his request to investigate it?
Real reason *
One other reason why I have become—just recently—so totally disgusted with these Rappler hypocrites is that I have learned the real reason why they were so willing to violate the Constitution by taking in foreign funds in 2015.
By 2015, Rappler was
fast going bankrupt, mainly because of the huge costs it was racking up by
using overpriced software to increase its Internet audience. It had already
spent about P200 million yet was still earning little revenue after three years
of operation.
Rappler’s main
Filipino owner, Bitanga, disclosed to me in a text message the other day that
he had stopped funding the outfit by then.
Ressa and her
colleagues would have been unemployed if they couldn’t get any more funds into
the firm. No businessman would dare fund or go near Rappler, because of Ressa’s
reputation.
The only recourse for
Rappler was to seek big money, from foreign outfits like Omidyar Network and
North Base Media, whichmake such a huge pretenseof helping democratic
institutions thrive in Third World countries, that there are allegations that they
are linked to US intelligence agencies.
One reason I pursued
the online-only media outfit for taking in foreign money in violation of the
Constitution is that I was very much aware, having been editorinchief of the
Inq7.net (the former news website that was a joint venture of the Philippine
Daily Inquirer and GMA7) that the New Media—made possible by digital technology
and the Internet—was so vulnerable to foreign control. *
Rappler got to expand
its readership swiftly not because of journalistic excellence, but because of
its use of Internet technology which is expensive and available mostly only to
US firms. One example of this was Rappler’s use of “cookies” that are
automatically stored in the computer of anybody who views any of its pages,
which enables it to report that its viewers have strong “engagements” with the
site. It has been using expensive technology for its articles to adopt to
Google’s search algorithms—which are so often changed—so that its articles are
listed high in the firm’s search results.
New media
If foreigners are allowed to dominate the New Media – which more and more of our youth are reading – because of their monopoly of technology and their access to huge amounts of capital, our sense of nationhood will be eroded fast. After the schools, media is the prime molder of a nation’s culture, and our youths’ minds will be molded by foreigners.
I have never written
about myself in my columns, but I have to do so this time in order to disabuse
the minds of some – because they don’t know my background — who may suspect my
motives “for going after” the news site.
*
I have been a working
journalist most of my life. My credentials as a journalist have been validated
by the fact that I am the only Philippine journalist to have won the four most
prestigious mass media awards: the Catholic Mass Media Award (1983), Fellow of
the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University (1988), Asian
Journalist of the Year, (1991) and Ten Outstanding Young Men Awards for Print
Media (1992).
But more than a
journalist, I am a nationalist, an adherent of the belief that the nation is
the principal organization we have to be loyal to, and that we must protect it
from attempts by other nations to dominate it. I joined the Communist Party in
my teenage years mainly because I had been convinced it was the only
organization fighting for nationalism in the 1970s. I spent two years in
Marcos’ prisons for that.
I was a reporter for
Business Day from 1981 to the end of Marcos’ strongman rule, and we risked life
and limb by exploiting the narrow democratic space that opened up as a result
of the lifting of martial law at the time.
I was even threatened
by certain Marcos technocrats when I exposed that they were manipulating our
Central Bank’s international reserves to make it appear that it could pay for
our foreign debts. (It couldn’t so we fell into default in October 1983, with
then Research Director Say Tetangco claiming that my articles panicked foreign
banks.) *
Press freedom is a
right I uphold, and I had put my life on the line for that. I just hate it that
Ressa and her colleagues are exploiting the issue of press freedom as an excuse
for their violation of the Constitution, which they did just to maintain their
jobs and to bloat their egos.
Report from Manila Times
11 Comments
thank you sir tiglao for this huge expose'
ReplyDeletelaglagan na hahahah
ReplyDeleteBrilliant one...
ReplyDeleteThank you 🙏 sir R. Tiglao for clarifying the issue... God Bless
ReplyDeleteLong live and may your tribe increase Mr. R. Tiglao!
ReplyDeleteExcellent revelation & big eye opener to those who believe that Rappler (ressa & Pia ranada) are victims of freedom of press. They (RAPPLER) are the culprit/ abusive /offender / violators here & not PRRD...thank you Mr. Tiglao for your revelation..Mabuhay po kayo!
ReplyDeleteSo what now rappler?suppression of press freedom?give your side about your tax evassion case now filed by BIR...
ReplyDeleteSir,
ReplyDeleteWe know everyone knows this Rappler and its company of so-called learned desente individuals are all nothing but hooligans (thanks to you and others who are not afraid to expose these dubious characters). Obviously Rappler LIED in their GIS, so what's the obvious thing SEC will do? Rappler were given a year to respond but nothing from the side of Rappler. We say they had it coming for themselves.
Keep it up! I Greatly Respect your Courage & Fairness Mr Tiglao!��
ReplyDeleteGood-bye Rappler, good-bye Maria Ressa. And good riddance.
ReplyDeleteAyan na..hehehe karma na yan sa rappler.pina labas pa ninyo na ginigipit kayo ng gobierno?
ReplyDelete