The government's top lawyer on Monday asked the Commission on Elections to drop its partnership with Rappler on voter engagement and fact-checking during the 2022 elections, questioning the news website's "legal personality" to deal with government.
Solicitor General Jose Calida said Comelec's partnership with Rappler will give the news website "the monopoly of truths arising from its claimed fact-checking accreditation from international entities."
Rappler on Feb. 24 signed a memorandum of agreement with Comelec to help the poll body disseminate election-related information and engage the voting public both online and offline.
Under the agreement, Rappler will provide engaging content, shareable infographics and educational videos as part of its awareness building efforts, according to Comelec. An online show, podcast, workshops and seminars will also be produced.
A precinct finder and post finder will also be made available on Rappler's website once it becomes available, the Comelec added, making these services more mobile-responsive and accessible to voters.
Calida, however, said Comelec's MOA with Rappler violates the Constitution and other laws.
The solicitor general said the Securities and Exchange Commission earlier moved to revoke Rappler's Certificate of Incorporation in 2018 for supposedly violating the Constitution, Presidential Decree 1018, and the Anti-Dummy Law.
"As such, Rappler does not have any legal personality to perform any corporate act, let alone enter into a MOA with the Comelec for the upcoming 2022 elections. This absence of the essential element of consent on the part of Rappler renders the MOA void," Calida said.
Calidad added that Rappler is still "subject to the foreign entity restriction under the Constitution" even without the revocation.
"Thus, the MOA contravenes this constitutional limitation and the proscription against foreign participation in the conduct of the elections," he said.
In allowing a precinct finder and post finder to be made available on Rappler's website, Calida said the news website will also be given access to confidential data of registered voters, for which a data-sharing agreement should have been executed.
"Rapper's previous history of disseminating unverified and, sometimes, false claims also render it unfit for the fundamental purpose envisioned under the MOA," Calida said, adding that the news website could not even safeguard its own system from Distributed Denial of Service attacks, showing its "extreme vulnerability to data breaches."
Calida gave Comelec five days, or until March 4, to rescind its MOA with Rappler, or he would file the necessary case in court to declare the agreement null by March 7.
What went before?
Rappler's foreign ownership case stemmed from the Philippine Depositary Receipts the news website allowed its foreign investor Omidyar Network to hold. A PDR grants the holder the "right to the delivery or sale of the underlying shares of stock", but is not necessarily an evidence of ownership, according to GMA News.
Under the Constitution, mass media corporations in the Philippines should be 100% Filipino-owned.
The Court of Appeals upheld the SEC decision that Omidyar's PDRs is "tantamount of some foreign control," but urged the commission to review the effect of the donation of the PDRs to Rappler. The case remains pending before the appellate court.
The Comelec defended its partnership with Rappler, saying that the news website's foreign ownership case has no final judgment yet.
"If they’re able to operate now, why should they not be considered a legitimate news organization?” Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said in a press briefing on Monday.
“Rappler is not getting any special information, it’s not getting any special treatment, it’s not getting special information that would not be available to any other media networks," he added.
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