People of the Philippines v. Santos, Ressa and Rappler
People of the Philippines v. Santos, Ressa and Rappler, also known as the Maria Ressa cyberlibel case, is a high-profile criminal case in the Philippines, lodged against Maria Ressa, co-owner and CEO of Rappler, Inc. Accused of cyberlibel, Ressa was found guilty by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa on June 15, 2020. She is the second person in the Philippines to be found criminally liable for the offense.
The case centered on an article published on Rappler by Reynaldo Santos, Jr. which accused the former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines of accepting favors from Filipino-Chinese businessman Wilfredo Keng. Santos, Ressa, and others were charged with cyberlibel retrospectively; the article had been published four months before the law came into force.
Following her conviction, Ressa announced her intention to appeal to the Court of Appeals and, if necessary, the Supreme Court. Rappler Inc., as a corporation, was not found liable; Santos, however, as author, was. Ressa, in her capacity of Rappler's chief executive officer, was also found liable. By the time Santos was charged, he was no longer working as a journalist.
The court ruled that Ressa "did not offer a scintilla of proof that they verified the imputations of various crimes in the disputed article... just simply published them as news in their online publication in reckless disregard of whether they are false or not." The judgement also argued that Ressa had deliberately called herself an executive editor, rather than editor-in-chief, in an attempt to avoid liability.
The ruling was criticised by human rights groups, with the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights describing the case as part of a "pattern of intimidation" against the Philippine press.
Background
The Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 was signed into law by President Benigno Aquino III on September 12, 2012, and it went into force on October 3. Among the actions criminalized by this law is "cyberlibel". Six days after the law commenced, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order to stop its implementation. The Supreme Court lifted this restraining order on February 18, 2014, and upheld most of the sections of the law including the cyberlibel component.Rappler is a Filipino news website that was founded in 2012. It is online-only, but has an editorial process and its news articles are written by journalists. Since Rappler's founding, its CEO and executive editor has been Maria Ressa, who was featured as one of Time
Santos, Jr.'s article primarily relied on a 2002 Philippine Star article titled "Influential businessman eyed in ex-councilor's slay" as a source. It also relied on an "intelligence report" prepared that same year by the National Security Council, which the article says implicated Keng in human trafficking and drug smuggling. This report, however, was not presented to the Court as evidence. On February 16, 2019, although the Star believed that it had the right to keep the article online, it chose to voluntarily take the article down after Keng threatened it too with legal action. Despite the conviction, Santos Jr. "stands behind" his story.
On December 20, 2017, Keng filed a complaint-affidavit before the National Bureau of Investigation to charge Santos, Jr. and Ressa, along with Rappler
Another issue that the DOJ opined on was the prescriptive period. Regular libel has a prescriptive period of one year in the Philippines, but R.A. 10175 does not define a prescriptive period for cyberlibel. Therefore, the DOJ reasoned that it must be twelve years, as Act No. 3326 defines. While there was a temporary restraining order against implementation of R.A. 10175, the Supreme Court's 2014 decision in Disini v. Secretary of Justice made the law go into effect as scheduled on October 3, 2012. The DOJ later dropped Bitanga and the six others from the complaint, as their "part in the publication established".
Maria Ressa was arrested on the night of February 13, 2019, and spent that night in jail before being released on bail the next morning. Ressa alleges that she was purposely arrested at night so that she could not bail herself out in a timely manner. As of March 2019, Ressa has paid more than in bail and travel bonds, the latter of which Ressa's camp labeled as "excessive". If all of the cases filed against Ressa up to June 18, 2020, were to result in guilty verdicts after final appeal, and the sentences were all to run, she would face around 100 years in prison.
People v. Santos, et al. is one of multiple legal cases filed by various government agencies against Rappler. Other cases allege ownership irregularities and tax evasion. Both Ressa and Chel Diokno, a human rights attorney who also represents Rappler, connect a statement made by President Duterte during his 2017 State of the Nation Address to the outpour of legal cases against Rappler from the executive branch.
Trial
Ressa and Santos Jr. were arraigned on May 13, 2019. Their trial began on July 23, 2019. Although prosecuted in the name of the "People of the Philippines", private prosecutors from three different law firms argued on behalf of convicting Ressa and Santos, Jr. personally on behalf of, and on the payroll of, Keng: these prosecutors were seasoned attorneys who had previously defended both drug lord Peter Lim and Sen. Bong Revilla, accused and acquitted of plunder before the Sandiganbayan. Private prosecutors are allowed in the Philippines as a result of a change to the Revised Rules of Criminal Procedure enacted by the Supreme Court in 2002. Ressa and Santos Jr. were represented by attorneys Theodore Te and.In the lead-up to the trial, Ressa's attorneys tried several times to achieve dismissal via motions to quash, motions to dismiss, and demurrers, but all such motions were denied by the Court.
The verdict was originally scheduled for April 3, 2020, but it was delayed due to COVID-19. On the advice of counsel, neither Ressa nor Santos Jr. testified in their own defense.
Verdict
After an eight-month trial, " could the quickest libel trial in recent history" according to Rappler, Ressa and Santos, Jr. were both found guilty of criminal cyberlibel by Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa. The verdict was handed down on June 15, 2020. Although corporate liability against Rappler Inc. had been sought, the judge ruled that there was no corporate liability in this case. They were both sentenced to between six months and six years in prison, but are entitled to bail while they have appeals pending in higher courts. They were also both assessed fines of for combined "moral damages" and "exemplary damages".In its ruling, the Court said that Ressa "did not offer a of proof that they verified the imputations of various crimes in the disputed article. They just simply published them as news in their online publication in reckless disregard of whether they are false or not"; it also accused Ressa of committing a "clever ruse" by not calling herself an editor-in-chief, but rather an executive editor, to avoid libel liability. Journalists criticized the judge for this stance as "executive editor" is a common at many publications; the title is not exclusive to Rappler.
The Court also drew an adverse inference from Ressa and Santos Jr.'s refusal to testify, relying on the precedent of People v. Resano, which states that defendants "owe it to themselves" to testify if they are "in the best position to refute charges" as there may be no other way to affect "the complete destruction of the prosecution's prima facie case".
The ruling was handed down in person, despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and general community quarantine. The clerk of court, judge, defendants, complainant Keng, along with one lawyer from each firm, were in attendance. Judge Estacio-Montesa ordered her clerk to first read out her , which read in part, "there is no curtailment of the right to freedom of speech and of the press", before the Court's ruling.
After the verdict, a "vindicated" Keng sued Ressa again for a different count of cyberlibel, this time over a tweet she wrote on February 15, 2019, which contained a screenshot of the 2002 Philippine Star article discussed in. Keng stated that by republishing the article " feloniously communicated the malicious imputations against me not only to her 350,000 Twitter followers, but to anyone who has access to the internet."
Appeal
Santos, Jr. and Ressa have the right to file an appeal, first in the Court of Appeals, and then in the Supreme Court. Should they prevail in the Court of Appeals, Keng and the government would have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court. Ressa plans to appeal, both on her own behalf and on the behalf of Santos, Jr., who Rappler Inc. is covering the legal costs of. They have fifteen days to file their appeal, and may also file a motion for reconsideration before the Manila Regional Trial Court.At appeal, questions of law are most important. One question of law that could be brought up at appeal is a question about the prescriptive period. In Disini v. Secretary of Justice, the Court ruled that "cyberlibel is actually not a new crime since Article 353, in relation to Article 355 of the , already punishes it. In effect, Section 4 above merely affirms that online defamation constitutes "similar means" for committing libel." So, it could be questioned whether or not the prescriptive period is also equal to libel under the Revised Penal Code.
While a question not raised at the Regional Trial Court level may not be raised at the Court of Appeals, the Court of Appeals is able to consider the facts anew. The Supreme Court, however, is not generally a "trier of facts", so will only be able to consider questions of law.
Reactions
Reaction to the case was mixed. Before the verdict in April 2020, Reporters Without Borders' annual Press Freedom Index report ranked the Philippines 136 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom. Historically, since the end of martial law under Ferdinand Marcos, the Philippines was regarded as having one of the most free presses in Asia. People v. Santos, et al. is one of multiple legal cases filed by various government agencies against Rappler. Collectively, these have been described by The Guardian and Reporters Without Borders as "judicial harassment".Leni Robredo, Vice President of the Philippines and leader of the opposition, argued that the verdict was intended as an instruction to the opposition to "keep quiet". Hillary Clinton echoed a similar sentiment; while Madeleine Albright said she "stands with Maria Ressa". The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines declared that the verdict "basically kills freedom of speech and of the press" and has led to a "dark day... for all Filipinos.", the cybercrime lawyer who brought Disini v. Secretary of Justice in an attempt to see the law overturned by the Supreme Court of the Philippines, criticized the verdict.
The United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights suggested that the case was part of a "pattern of intimidation" against the Philippine press, while Amnesty International called on the judiciary to quash the cases, as did Human Rights Watch. A group of United States Senators called the verdict a "travesty of justice" that "set dangerous precedents". The European External Action Service, the diplomatic corps of the European Union, commented that the verdict "raises serious doubts over the respect for freedom of expression as well as for the rule of law in the Philippines." This sentiment was echoed by David Kaye, a United Nations special rapporteur. The US Department of State's response expressed "concern" over the verdict, to which Malacañang reacted negatively, warning of another possible "setback" in diplomatic relations if the State Department continued to, in its words, "interfere".
Harry Roque, President Duterte's official spokesman suggested the law's origins were under former President Aquino, as it was passed by his administration. Roque had previously been a petitioner in Disini v. Sec'y of Justice which attempted to have cyberlibel removed as an offence. Roque also emphasized that the prosecution of Rappler is not politically motivated, and has urged people to "respect" the ruling. He has also argued that in 2008 Duterte, as mayor of Davao, had helped a journalist jailed on a libel charge, and that Duterte does not prosecute journalists who make accusations against him. Roque stated that Duterte's appointment of Keng's daughter, Patricia Anne C. Keng, as a member of the Philippine Commission on Women on September 19, 2019 did not affect the integrity of the verdict against Ressa.