MANILA – The Court of Appeals (CA) upheld the order of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoking the license of online news website Rappler for violating the 1987 Constitution.
In a decision dated March 5 but released publicly yesterday, the CA rejected Rappler’s plea to reverse the SEC ruling and maintained that the online news website was not fully Filipino-owned.
“A motion for reconsideration grounded on arguments already submitted to the court and found to be without merit may be denied summarily, as it would be a useless ritual for this Court to reiterate itself,” the appellate it said.
The grant of control to a foreign entity over a mass media entity, regardless of the actual exercise of such foreign control, is already considered a violation, the Court of Appeals stressed.
But even if Rappler’s appeal was dismissed, the CA ordered the SEC to evaluate the legal effect of the “supervening donation” made by Omidyar Network of all its Philippine Depositary Receipts to Rappler.
“It is incumbent upon the SEC to evaluate the terms and conditions of said alleged supervening donation and its legal effect, particularly, whether the same has the effect of mitigating, if not curing, the violation it found petitioners to have committed,” it said.
The SEC, in a decision on January 2018, revoked Rappler’s registration for violating the constitutional requirement for mass media to be 100-percent Filipino owned.
Omidyar Network donated all of its $1.5 million worth of PDRs to 14 Rappler managers following SEC’s issuance of the revocation order.
Rappler, however, maintained that Omidyar does not exercise control over the news site./PN
