CA OKs Maria Ressa US travel

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) has failed to stop Nobel Peace Prize winner and Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa’s travel abroad after the Court of Appeals (CA) granted her request to attend a series of lectures at the Harvard University and visit her parents in the United States.

Ressa left for the US on Sunday, according to her news agency.

In a six-page resolution dated Oct. 29, the appellate court’s Eighth Division denied the OSG’s motion for reconsideration and granted Ressa’s petition to travel to the US.

The resolution was penned by Justice Geraldine Fiel-Macaraig.

The CA allowed Ressa to travel to Boston from Oct. 31 to Dec. 2 to attend a 30-day program at the Harvard Kennedy School.

The CA, which is hearing Ressa’s appeal to her cyber libel conviction, noted that in the invitation letter sent to the journalist, the Harvard program requires her physical presence.

While in the US, she will also celebrate Thanksgiving in Florida with her parents, whom she had not seen for two years.

The appeals court granted her request to travel because in sum, “the OSG failed to present compelling reasons to warrant a reconsideration of the Oct. 18 resolution. Thus, granting of Ressa’s fifth urgent motion to travel abroad stands.”

The appellate court said Ressa was able to prove that her travel was urgent and necessary and that she is not a flight risk.

The CA promulgated its decision more than a week after the journalist was named one of the two winners of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize.