The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has dismissed the cyber libel complaint against online news website Rappler.
The NBI ruled the one-year prescriptive period to file libel against the news organization has lapsed.
The subject of the case was an investigative report posted more than five years ago.
Businessman Wilfredo Keng filed the charge against Rappler at the NBI in December last year.
Keng had accused Rappler of violating ethical standards in journalism.
This stemmed from the article published in May 2012.
The story reported that Keng supposedly lent his SUV to then Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Keng said the post contained malicious imputations of crimes and it allegedly maligned his character.
Rappler had told the NBI that it did not commit cyber libel.
The news organization said the article was published 4 months before the Cybercrime Prevention Act was enacted into law in September 2012.
Criminal cases are not retroactive.