BY ASHZEL HACHERO and GERARD NAVAL
THE Office of the Solicitor General yesterday asked the Supreme Court to void a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and Rappler Inc. for fact checking and stop its implementation.
Solicitor General Jose Calida said the MOA violates the 1987 Constitution and other laws.
The Comelec-MOA deal was signed last month. It is not the first time that the Comelec has forged an agreement with online news website as they have had election-related partnerships since 2013.
Comelec acting chair Socorro Inting said the poll body is ready to face the consequences of its pact with Rappler.
“We cannot do anything but face the music, answer the petition, and defend the MOA that we signed with Rappler,” said Inting. “But whatever the decision the Court will render, we will abide by it.”
Rappler, in a statement, said the case filed by the OSG “is ironic, to say the least, because it runs counter to the office’s mandate to represent and lawyer for, not against, government agencies such as Comelec.”
It also said its MOA with the Comelec for the May 9 elections ”seeks to broaden voters’ access to truthful information and encourage them to do their part in ensuring an honest and transparent political exercise.”
“This has also been the guiding principle in all our past election-related partnerships with Comelec since 2013,” it added.
Under the MOA, Rappler will collaborate with Comelec for a fact-checking initiative, with the former alerting the latter of false and misleading online election-related claims that could undermine the election’s integrity.
The poll body will also allow Rappler to embed its online precinct finder once it has become available.
The OSG petition said given the urgency of the situation, it has no other recourse but to elevate the case to the SC. Calida noted the Comelec chose not to rescind the MOA despite his legal advice that it is void and illegal.
It can be recalled that on February 28, Calida urged the poll body to rescind the MOA within five days, otherwise, he said, he would file a case in court.
“It is beyond belief that the Comelec has allowed a foreign non-registered entity to interfere the conduct of the country’s election. Even if Rappler is treated as an existing corporation, it is a foreign mass media entity managed by an American citizen whose operations are funded and or controlled by foreign entities that include Omidyar Network Fund L.L.C,” the OSG’s petition said.
The Securities and Exchange Commission earlier revoked Rappler’s certificate of incorporation. On appeal, the Court of Appeals did not issue any resolution to stay or reverse the SEC revocation.
Calida said the MOA violates the constitutional and statutory proscription against foreign interference in the conduct of elections, adding that Rappler’s interference comes in various forms.
“Essentially, Comelec has “co-shared” with Rappler its power to decide on all questions affecting elections pursuant to Part 1, Paragraph 1(b) of the MOA. This is in clear usurpation of its sole power to decide on such questions under Section 2 (3), Article IX-C of the Constitution,” Calida said.
Part 1, Paragraph 1 (b) of the MOA, according to Calida, authorized Rappler to alert the poll body on any election-related posts in 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,” Calida added, although how would Rappler be able to do that was not explained in the petition.
The MOA, Calida said, likewise breeds unconstitutional incursion on an individual’s right to privacy as Rappler was granted access to key information and confidential data of registered voters absent any proper safeguards on the retrieval, use and storage of such data.
Finally, Calida said, the MOA grants Rappler unqualified access to “data of untransmitted votes to all the canvassing centers due to lowering of threshold, and other technical issues in the automated election system” without, again, any safeguards on how the Comelec and Rappler will protect the sanctity of the untransmitted votes.
“The endless possibility here is that Rappler may control any election narrative that suits the agenda of Rappler’s foreign owners which will not be for the benefit of the Filipino people. The Comelec has willingly lent credence to Rappler’s story line about the Philippine elections due to Rappler’s unbriddled right under the Constitution,” Calida argued.
“It is the OSG’s position that the nation’s future is at risk for the Comelec erroneously chose to partner with a foreign media company whose license was duly revoked in 2018 and dangerously allowed this pseudo-media company to proactively influence the 2022 elections,” the solicitor general added.
Calida cited cases involving Rappler – from Anti-Dummy and violation of Securities Regulation Code to tax evasion and cybercrime, some of which he initiated.
Earlier, former senator and presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. through his campaign manager Benhur Abalos said Comelec should reconsider the agreement as Rappler is a foreign entity.
Abalos released the statement on the day that the OSG also issued a statement urging the poll body to void the agreement.
Calida campaigned for Marcos in the latter’s failed vice presidential bid in 2016.
In an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel last Friday, Rappler’s CEO Maria Ressa defended the MOA, saying that the embedding of the Comelec’s precinct finder in the Rappler website does not mean the site has access to Comelec data.
Ressa said all the data will remain with the poll body.
