A Filipino winning the Nobel Peace Prize would normally be cause for celebration. If this administration could celebrate the Olympic gold of a weightlifter and the victories of a pro-boxing senator, citing the pride they brought to the nation, why was there reluctance from the Palace to acknowledge a journalist who became the first Filipino to win the Nobel prize?
Indeed, it was only three days after Maria Ressa, co-founder of the online news service Rappler, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside a Russian journalist, that the loquacious Palace spokesman grudgingly acknowledged the feat, using the award to say that press freedom was alive in the country.
Prior to this, the only official acknowledgment came by way of a post on Twitter by the similarly loquacious Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr., who paid Ressa a backhanded compliment by saying she was “lucky” and that his former boss, the late President Cory Aquino, could have had that honor were it not for infighting among her allies.
It is no secret, of course, that President Rodrigo Duterte despises Ressa, barring Rappler reporters from covering his events and attacking the news service as a purveyor of fake news for its critical coverage of his bloody war on drugs, which has taken thousands of lives.
The government has also harassed Rappler with accusations of illegal foreign ownership and tax evasion. It has also facilitated the filing of libel charges against Ressa—with the Justice Department extending the liability period of libel claims from one to 12 years to enable a businessman to sue her for a story published in 2012. She was later convicted on this charge, but has filed an appeal.
In contrast to Malacañang, the Kremlin had issued a congratulatory statement to Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov almost on the day he was announced a winner, even though his newspaper Novaya Gazeta has been critical of the Russian authorities.
“We can congratulate Dmitry Muratov,” a Kremlin spokesman said. “He persistently works in accordance with his own ideals, he is devoted to them, he is talented, he is brave.”
Not quite the presidential medal of merit, but it was an acknowledgment, nonetheless.
Locsin was right, of course—Ressa was indeed lucky.
By a simple twist of fate, she now joins the ranks of other Nobel laureates such as Barack Obama in 2009, Al Gore in 2007, Jimmy Carter in 2002, Kofi Annan in 2001, Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres in 1994, Nelson Mandela in 1993, Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, and the Dalai Lama in 1989.
All this because the Duterte administration did not understand or could not tolerate the role of media in society, and sought instead to silence a journalist by persecuting her and her organization. Ressa, perhaps, would not have had to exhibit the courage she did had they not gone after her hammer and tongs.
It is tempting to imagine a gaggle of Palace officials in conference, wondering how to solve a problem like Maria. If they are at loss for words, perhaps they can simply cut and paste the remarks from the Kremlin. Or maybe they should take a victory lap and do what one clueless administration supporter did, by saying, Nobel Prize winners: Aquino, 0, Duterte 1. They are, after all, ultimately responsible for giving Ressa the opportunity to show her courage.