Businessman Wilfredo Keng has filed a second complaint against Rappler founder Maria Ressa at the Makati City Prosecutor’s’ Office in February this year, the news website she founded revealed.
READ: Rappler exec faces 6 years in jail for libel
The revelation came just days after Ressa’s conviction for cyber libel at the Manila Regional Trial Court.
The court on Monday sentenced Ressa and co-accused Reynaldo Santos, Jr. to jail time ranging from 6 months and 1 day to 6 years and damages totalling P400,000.
The new complaint, also for cyber libel, was due to Ressa’s Feb. 15, 2019 tweet, which posted screenshots of a 2002 article in another newspaper linking the property developer to the murder of a former councilor.
READ: Malacanang resents US remarks on Ressa ruling
This was the same article referred to in Rappler’s May 2012 report that was the subject of Ressa’s cyber libel conviction on Monday.
The newspaper took down the article after Keng’s camp “raised the possibility of legal action” following Ressa’s arrest on Feb. 13, 2019.
In the new complaint, the businessman accused Ressa of maliciously sharing false information despite having been shown a 2016 certification from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) stating that he has no derogatory record.
The PDEA certification cleared Keng of involvement in drugs but not in murder that was the subject of the article in the Philippine Star. But he insisted that both the Star’s and Rappler’s articles had the same purpose of destroying his reputation.
READ: Ressa: Philippine journalist not deterred by threats, arrests
Keng said his lawyers demanded that Ressa take down the tweet but she instead sent a letter resisting the demand.
“I disagree with your legal characterization of the tweet as a republication, based on existing jurisprudence,” Ressa said.
