Rapplerâs scheme was an attack on the Constitution and our nationhood
RAPPLER president Maria Ressaâs caterwauling that the corporate regulatory bodyâs decision to close down her outfit is an attack on the free press is pure, unadulterated rubbish.
She is lying through her teeth. She fully knows that it took the Securities and Exchange Commission the whole of last year to investigate the allegations that Rappler violated the constitutional provision banning foreign money in and control of media firms. I donât think anyone can accuse the SEC chair, Teresita Herbosa, of being a Duterte lackey: She was appointed by former President Aquino 3rd in 2011.
Ressa obviously doesnât respect our laws nor our country, that she imputes other motives to the SEC decision, thereby portraying the Philippines as a dictatorship going after critical media.
Rappler was given a whole year and opportunity to respond to the allegations, with Ressa herself appearing in meetings with SEC investigators, who were even so patient as to acquiesce to her last-minute requests for postponement âfor personal reasons.â

Rappler actually functioned as a tool of the Aquino regime. It was set up in 2011, when the Yellow Cult realized that in its ambition to completely control Filipinosâ minds, their hold of traditional media, through the two dominant TV networks and through the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Philippine Star, was not enough, especially in the new social-media world emerging.