THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has affirmed its decision that orders the closure of online news organization Rappler, the agency said on Wednesday, June 29, 2022.
The SEC order affirming the revocation of the certificate of incorporation of Rappler Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) for violation of constitutional and statutory restrictions on foreign ownership in mass media was issued on June 28, 2022.
It was signed by SEC Chairman Emilio Aquino and its commissioners Javey Paul Francisco, Kelvin Lester Lee, Karlo Bello and Mcjill Bryant Fernandez.
Journalist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, co-founder of Rappler, confirmed this in a speech in Hawaii Tuesday, June 28, saying: “Part of the reason I didn’t have much sleep last night is because we essentially got a shutdown order.”
Last year, Ressa became the first Filipino and she and Russian Dmitry Muratov became the first working journalists in more than 80 years to win the Nobel Peace Prize.
She was a featured speaker at this week's East-West Center’s International Media Conference.
“Accordingly, the SEC revoked the certificates of incorporation of Rappler, being the mass media entity that sold control to foreigners, and of RHC, being an alter ego that existed for no other purpose aside from effecting a scheme aimed at masking the former’s constitutional violation,” the SEC said.
“The decision of the CA has attained finality and the latest resolution of the appellate court only bolsters the Commission’s position that Rappler and RHC violated the Constitution and that their certificates of incorporation should therefore be revoked,” it added.
In a statement, Rappler said it will appeal the decision, noting that the “proceedings were highly irregular.”
“We were notified by our lawyers of this ruling that effectively confirmed the shutdown of Rappler,” it said.
“We are entitled to appeal this decision and will do so, especially since the proceedings were highly irregular,” it added.
Ressa said: “We’re not shutting down... Well, I'm not supposed to say that.”
It was in January 2018 when the SEC en banc issued an order of revocation after finding out that the news organization is liable for violating mass media restrictions when it issued “questionable” Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) that granted Omidyar Network, a foreign entity, control over their operations.
The SEC also declared the PDRs void pursuant to Section 71.2 of Republic Act 8799, or the Securities Regulation Code, for being a fraudulent transaction within the ambit of Section 26.1 of the law.
The investigation stemmed from a request from the Office of the Solicitor General in 2016 for the SEC to investigate Rappler over its PDRs.
Rappler appealed the SEC decision before the Court of Appeals (CA), which ordered for the remanding of the case.
The CA instructed the SEC to conduct an evaluation on the legal effects as the Omidyar Network announced its intention to donate the PDRs to the Filipino staff of Rappler.
In 2019, the Supreme Court issued a resolution declaring the case “closed and terminated.”
“In compliance with the directive of the CA, the SEC, through the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), filed on February 17, 2021 a manifestation containing the findings of a special panel convened by the Commission for the purpose of evaluating the legal effect of the supervening donation,” the SEC said.
“After a careful study of all the pleadings and arguments of the parties, the special panel concluded that the purported donation of the PDRs to the staff of Rappler neither created nor transferred any right in favor of the donees which would mitigate or cure the violation already committed,” it added. (With AP/SunStar Philippines)