Three days after journalist and government critic Maria Ressa won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Palace issued a terse statement saying her achievement was proof that press freedom was alive in the Philippines.
“It’s a victory for a Filipino and we’re very happy for that,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque said in Monday’s regular briefing.
“Press freedom is alive, and the proof is the Nobel Prize awarded to Maria Ressa,” Roque said, in the Palace’s first public comments on the award.
Since President Rodrigo Duterte came to power in 2016, Ressa and Rappler have faced a series of criminal charges and investigations that media advocates describe as state harassment over their reporting, including stories critical of the government’s bloody war on drugs.
Duterte has called Rappler a “fake news outlet,” and Ressa has been the target of several libel cases and abusive messages online.
Ressa, co-founder of news website Rappler, and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the prize on Friday for their efforts to “safeguard freedom of expression.”
Press groups and rights activists have hailed Ressa’s prize as a triumph in a country ranked as one of the world’s most dangerous for journalists.
Ressa, 58, said in an interview Saturday that she was still battling seven court cases, including an appeal of a cyber libel conviction, for which she faces up to six years in prison.
Two other cyber libel cases were dismissed earlier this year.
Ressa, who is also a US citizen, said she hoped the prize would help shield her and other journalists in the Philippines against physical attacks and online threats.
“This ‘us against them’ was never the creation of the journalists, it was the creation of the people in power who wanted to use a type of leadership that divides society,” Ressa said.
“I hope… this allows journalists to do our jobs well without fear.”
Roque denied the government had created a “chilling effect” for media outlets, saying anyone who claimed that “should not be a journalist.”
He also rejected suggestions Ressa’s Nobel Prize was “a slap” for the government, insisting “no one has ever been censored in the Philippines.”
“Maria Ressa still has to clear her name before our courts,” Roque said, calling her a “convicted felon.”
“We leave it to our courts to decide on her fate.”
Ressa has gained international recognition for criticizing Duterte’s hard-line anti-drug campaign that reportedly killed more than 12,000 people.
She is currently on bail pending an appeal against a conviction last year in a cyber libel case, for which she faces up to six years in prison.
Ressa said she was “stunned” when she was announced as a winner for the prestigious award. Full story on manilastandard.net.
“Who would’ve thought. This is also for you. We are not alone. I feel like I’ve just been doing my job, the same way I always has when I started in 1980 as a reporter. You put one foot in front of the other,” she told ANC’s Headstart.
“And I hoped for ABS-CBN. This is ours.”
Ressa said she was supposed to receive the award in person on Dec. 10 10 in Oslo, Norway but she has been “denied the right to travel” since August last year.
She will apply to get clearance to travel from the court, her lawyer Theodore Te said.
“Leading up to August, the courts that handled all of these charges gave me authority to travel 36 times. Every time I came back. Even when there was one–actually two–where I knew the government had filed more charges and had an arrest warrant waiting for me,” she said.
“My track record clearly shows I want to win this court battle. As we have written numerous times, it has no legs to stand on.”
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Monday he believes that any Filipino who is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize should get the Senate Medal of Excellence but said current rules of the chamber disallow granting the award to Ressa.
The Senate Medal of Excellence is an institutional recognition, so the whole Senate body must be in agreement, as worded in the approved resolution creating the award, Zubiri said.
He recalled that it was Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon who proposed that the award be given only upon the unanimous vote of the chamber, to avoid cheapening the award.
This was adopted unanimously by the senators and can be read clearly in the last paragraph of the approved resolution amending the rules for the creation of the medal, Zubiri said.
“Reading the transcripts of our records that day, even the Senate President agreed with Senator Drilon that it should be a unanimous vote and not just unanimous consent,” Zubiri said.
“That’s how it was for our Olympians as well, as I had to put on record that each of the Olympic medal winners was unanimously voted upon to receive the Medal of Excellence,” he added.
A unanimous vote to award Ressa the medal is unlikely, given the number of Duterte allies in the Senate.
But Zubiri said if his colleagues wished to change the rules, they could vote on it when session resumes in November.
Earlier, Drilon said Ressa, as the first Filipino recipient of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, is automatically qualified to receive the Senate Medal of Excellence, the highest award given by the Senate.
Meanwhile, leftist lawmakers in the House of Representatives filed a resolution Monday commending and congratulating Ressa for winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
“Maria Ressa’s feat is a slap on the Duterte administration’s face and an indictment of its bloody policy against dissent and criticism,” said one of the Makabayan bloc’s members, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate.
“Ms. Ressa’s Nobel Peace Prize award has put the Philippines front and center in the continuous struggle for press freedom at a time when its suppression has become more creative –instead of outright censorship against media outfits critical of the present, administration, it has resorted to red-tagging, harassment, fake news articles, troll attacks, cyber-attacks, and even weaponizing the law such as the case of Rappler’s initial revocation of its corporate license and ABS- CBN’s franchise denial,” he added.
“Now the international spotlight is on the Philippines especially on the issue of press freedom and attacks on human rights. We must not let this opportunity pass and let the whole world know that we are fighting against a tyrant, and we will not stop until we succeed,” Zarate added.
Deputy speaker and Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez joined the Makabayan bloc and other lawmakers in congratulating Ressa for her award.
“It’s a personal achievement for her. She holds the distinction of being the first Filipino to be honored with such a much-coveted award,” Rodriguez said.
“It’s a recognition of her and her news organization’s incessant struggle for and defense of press freedom and freedom of expression. It carries with it the responsibility to pursue such a fight,” he said.
“Baseless charges for cyber libel were filed against Ressa but she fought on with determination and resolve. Despite this, Rappler continued to present news as they are, objectively, without fear or favor, regardless of whomsoever may be affected,” he said.
“This is not to say that there is no press freedom and freedom of expression under the Duterte administration. The press is absolutely free, and people are free to say what they want to say, subject only to the bounds set by law,” he added.
Also on Monday, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy (PCID) congratulated Ressa, saying it was fortunate to have her as a resource in its conferences on a just peace and the prevention of violent extremism.