MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General is asking the Supreme Court to void the Memorandum of Agreement between the Commission on Elections and online news site Rappler for the 2022 national polls.
Making good on its statement last week, Solicitor General Jose Calida on Monday assailed the MOA between the Comelec — usually and, by law, its client — and Rappler before the Supreme Court.
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"It is the OSG’s position that the nation’s future is at risk for the Comelec erroneously chose to partner with a foreign-controlled media company whose license was duly revoked in 2018 and dangerously allowed this pseudo media company to proactively influence the 2022 election," it said.
Calida told the court that the MOA should be voided "for being violative of the Constitution and other laws, not to mention its being onerous to the Government and the Republic."
"Given the urgency of the situation and transcendental importance of the matters of public interest, [Calida] urges the highest court to exercise its constitutional mandate to stop the numerous violations of the 1987 Constitution and other laws in the execution of the Rappler-Comelec MOA and to immediately issue a temporary restraining order," it said in a statement.
The OSG has not released a full copy of the petition as of this story’s posting.
In a separate press conference organized by the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict, National Press Club indicated it is willing to support the OSG either by filing its own petition or by mobilizing its members to protest the agreement between Comelec and Rappler.
Task force officials also indicated their support for the OSG's move.
'Fact-checking is prior restraint'
Among the issues that Calida raised is part of the MOA that "authorized Rappler to alert Comelec on any election-related posts on social media and with the sole discretion to determine what it deems ‘false, misleading and harmful information.’"
"Such power granted by Comelec in favor of Rappler clearly constitutes prior restraint on freedom of speech and of expression,” the solicitor general said.
In Chavez v. Gonzales, the Supreme Court referred to prior restraint as “official governmental restrictions on the press or other forms of expression in advance of actual publication or dissemination.”
Essentially, prior restraint means government restriction on the press before publication.
Calida said: "Rappler cannot act as king, priest, and noble — all at the same time — forcibly feeding the Filipinos what information it thinks is a fact."
Philippine media organizations, the academe and non-governmental groups have vowed to increase and amplify fact-checking efforts for the 2022 national elections.
Readers can verify the content of fact checks on their own since sources and bases for the fact-check ratings are included in the articles themselves.
Calida brings up supposed foreign ownership, funding
Other issues that Calida raised are also rehashed from his previous statement warning Comelec of potential court action, such as supposed foreign funding and privacy issues.
"It is beyond belief that Comelec has allowed a foreign non-registered entity to interfere the conduct of the country’s elections," the OSG said in the statement.
"The Solicitor General’s petition avers that even if Rappler were treated as an existing corporation, it is a foreign mass media entity managed by an American citizen and whose operations are funded and/or controlled by foreign entities that include Omidyar Network Fund LLC," it added.
The solicitor general was referring to the revocation of the Securities and Exchange Commission of Rappler’s Certificate of Incorporation in 2018 The SEC ruling has since been elevated to the Court of Appeals, and the court later ordered the regulatory body to look into the effects of Philippine Depositary Receipts of Omidyar Network to the company.
The SEC however upheld that the donation has "no effect," according to Rappler’s lawyer in November 2021. They have since appealed the finding.
Philippine law recognizes dual citizenship and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is a Filipino.
OSG claims Rappler will get access to 'confidential voter data'
The OSG also questioned information that may be granted to Rappler as part of the MOA.
They raised that the agreement "breeds unconstitutional incursion into an individual’s right to privacy as Rappler was granted access to key information and confidential data of registered voters absent any proper and narrowly focused safeguards on the retrieval, use and storage of such data."
Rappler has earlier stated in a report that Comelec will only be providing embed codes and not a full list of voters and precincts. This means third-party organizations like Rappler will not have access to the database.
"Collectively, these powers granted to Rappler constitute ‘taking part in our influencing in any manner in any election’ within the prohibition set forth in Section 81, Article X of the Omnibus Election Code," the OSG added.
Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez earlier pointed out that the issue on supposed foreign ownership of Rappler is still pending before the CA, and he asserted that the MOA with Rappler is the same that they enter into with other media organizations.
"Rappler is not getting any special information it’s not getting any special treatment. It’s not getting any information that would not be available to any other media network," he also said.