(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte rapped Rappler for its “fake news” citing its latest report accusing Presidential Assistant Christopher “Bong” Go of allegedly intervening in the acquisition of warships by the Philippine Navy, and called the online news site as a “fake news outlet.”
“Sumobra kayo. You are not only throwing toilet paper. You are throwing s— at us!” said an angry President Duterte as he faced the media in Pasay City on Tuesday, January 16.
The President said Rappler’s articles were “ripe with innuendoes and pregnant with falsity.”
“We do not intervene in the affairs of the Armed Forces. We are just an office that receives complaints, papers or references and transmits it to the proper agency. We do not get any money. We are not interested in that,” Duterte said, reacting to a Rappler investigative article entitled “Bong Go intervenes in P15.5-B project to acquire PH warships.”
“You can stop your suspicious mind from roaming somewhere else,” Duterte said as he answered a question by Rappler reporter Pia Ranada.
-“Fake news outlet”-
“But since you are a fake news outlet. Then I am not surprised that your articles are also fake. We can debate now. Tell me where (are) our lies. And I’ll tell you where are yours,” the President said.
Duterte also stressed that the issue was not about freedom of the press. He noted that Rappler was abusing the privilege by publishing alleged “fake” unfounded news.
“I am asking you where are your sense of values going?” he said of Rappler.
The 72-year old Philippine leader said that press freedom was a privilege in a democratic society which Rappler and other “irresponsible” media had overused.
-“You have the gall to attack people using foreign money?” Duterte tells Rappler-
“Hindi na kayo nahiya? You know that it is being funded, you are funded by foreign money. Are you not ashamed of that?,” Duterte asked the Rappler reporter, Ranada.
“Rappler is being funded by a foreigner. And you have the gall to attack people using foreign money?” he said referring to the millions of Philippine Depository Receipts (PDR) issued by Rappler Holdings to the foreign entities North Base Media (NBM) thru NBM Rappler, LP, and Omidyar Network.
The SEC noted that in 2015, Rappler Holdings Corporation issued 264,601 PDRs to NBM Rappler,LP on May 29, 2015; another 11,767,117 PDRs to NBM Rappler, LP on July 29, 2015; and more than 7 million PDRs (7,217,257 PDRs) to Omidyar Network Fund LLC.
The President said it does not matter whether the shares were voting or controlling shares, but that the huge investments coming from foreign sources can affect the income of a Philippine media organization which is barred by the Constitution from having any sort of “foreign” control.
Duterte said that Rappler’s latest news accusing Bong Go of intervening in the acquisition of warships by the Philippine Navy was not even founded on anything truthful.
“Where did you get the idea he can intervene? Where is his signature? Where is his statement? Where is even your point of reference?” he asked Rappler’s Ranada who replied that it was not she who wrote about it.
“Tingnan mo yung headline mo! Is that really the work of a sensible person?
“Do you think that you can convince (Defense Secretary Delfin) Lorenzana or the guys there that you can bribe them, or you think sila papayag na kami magba-bribe with the way I talk, with the way I am firing people?” the President said confronting the Rappler reporter.
Ranada, on the other hand, replied that Rappler had complied with the requirement for fairness when it tried to get the side of Bong Go and Lorenzana who both denied Rappler’s angle of the news.
“As far as we’ve concerned we’ve already addressed the issue of fainess in that,” she told the President.
Duterte then challenged her and Rappler to tell the truth on the alleged “intervention” that Go had committed.
-Duterte says he’ll ask Go to resign if Rappler report is true –
“I am now explaining even with your article!” the President said while waving a copy of Rappler’s report.
“Find a way, magsabi ka ng totoo na nag-intervene kami, I‘ll give it to you,” the President said as he handed the copy to Ranada.
“And if you can find, I will ask Bong to resign tomorrow. Work on it tonight. Let me know tomorrow. And I will fire him! If he did intervene, even for one word,” Duterte said.
He continued: “Kasi kayo! Tingnan ninyo yung article ninyo! Maligaya kayong gawin ninyo sa kapwa tao ninyo yan araw-araw? Just because you have the power of what?! Press freedom?
In its own news item about the issue of SEC’s revocation of its business license, Rappler called the ruling “a blow to press freedom.”
“We intend to not only contest this through all legal processes available to us, but also to fight for our freedom to do journalism and for your right to be heard through an independent platform like Rappler,” Rappler said in a separate statement posted on its website.
-Not a press freedom issue –
But Duterte said it was wrong of Rappler to cry press freedom.
“The issue here is not press freedom! (It is) the way your masters, the elite, yung may-ari nyan… and you are not even constitutionally allowed to go into the media, on the pretext of the depository… what kind of a___ is that?
“He who comes to equity must come with clean hands. You’re even trying to, you know, throw garbage at us and then, the least we can do is to explain. How about you? Are you also clean?” Duterte added.
“The constitution does not really allow your company, of which you are a worker of that company. You are a Filipino who has allowed (foreigners) to abuse our country, and you are an active participant of that in the name of the holy grail of press freedom,” the President said.
Duterte also noted that majority of the officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which isuued a ruling that revoked Rappler’s certificate of incorporation, were appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III.
“Ni hindi ko kilala yang __ __SEC na yan., puro Aquino (apointees) ang trabahante dyan,” he said.
On Monday, January 15, the SEC released its July 11, 2018 ruling which directed the revocation of the Certificate of Incorporation of the online news site Rappler, and its holding firm, Rappler Holdings Corporation, saying it violated the Constitution that barred foreign ownership of media.
The SEC cited the Foreign Equity Restriction enshrined in the Philippine Constitution that bars any form of ownership or control by foreign entities of Philippine mass media.
“The Foreign Restriction is very clear. Anything less than one hundred percent (100%) Filipino control is a violation. Conversely, anything more than exactly Zero Percent (0%) foreign control is a violation,” the SEC decision read.
(Eagle News Service)
