The Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on Monday asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from implementing its memorandum of agreement with the online news service Rappler to provide “fact-checking, poll-related content production, and voter awareness promotion during the election season.”
In a petition, the OSG argued that the agreement violated the Constitution and was onerous to the government.
The OSG did not provide the media copies of the petition but provided a summary of the case.
The Solicitor General earlier gave Comelec until March 4 to rescind the MOA, which it signed with Rappler on Feb. 24. If it did not, the OSG said it would file a case in court to nullify the agreement.
“Today’s event is an unprecedented one, as the government’s chief lawyer sues one of its statutory clients ultimately in the interest of preserving the integrity of the country’s elections which is just two months away,” the OSG said.
“Given the urgency of the situation and the transcendental importance of the issues involving matters of public interest, Solicitor General Jose C. Calida urges the highest court of the land to exercise its constitutional mandate to stop the numerous violations of the 1987 Constitution and other laws in the execution of the Rappler-Comelec MOA and to immediately issue a temporary restraining order,” the OSG said.
“It is beyond belief that the Comelec has allowed a foreign non-registered entity to interfere in the conduct of the country’s elections! The SEC had earlier revoked Rapper’s certificate of incorporation. On appeal, the Court of Appeals (CA) did not issue any resolution which stayed or reversed the revocation,” the OSG said.
Calida said that even if Rappler were treated as an existing corporation, it is a foreign mass media entity managed by an American citizen and whose operations are funded or controlled by foreign entities that include Omidyar Network Fund L.L.C.
“It is primarily based on this fact that the MOA violates the constitutional and statutory proscription against foreign interference in the country’s elections,” the OSG argued in its petition.
“The MOA likewise breeds unconstitutional incursion into an individual’s right to privacy, as Rappler was granted access to key information and confidential data of registered voters absent any proper and narrowly focused safeguards on the retrieval, use, and storage of such data,” he added.
“Finally, Part Il paragraph 3 of the MOA grants to Rappler unqualified access to ‘data of untransmitted votes to all the canvassing centers due to lowering of threshold, and such other technical issues in the Automated Elections System,’ without any safeguards on how the Comelec or Rappler will protect the sanctity of the untransmitted votes,” he said.
The Comelec said it was ready to defend its deal with Rappler.
“We cannot do anything but face the music, answer the petition, and defend the memorandum of agreement that we signed with Rappler.
Whatever decision the Court will render, we will abide by it,” Comelec acting chairperson Socorro Inting said.
She said the agreement had undergone a review by the Comelec Law Department, which saw nothing wrong.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez also denied that Rappler has access to confidential data.
“One of the key points in MOA preparation for the Comelec is to ensure that there is no violation of the Data Privacy Law. We do that for all
memoranda of agreement,” he said.