More groups rue Comelec-Rappler deal

BAGUIO CITY (March 7, 2022)—- Groups expressing disgust over the partnership of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) and ‘foreign’ media entity Rappler ha swollen further.

Now calling for its immediate abolition, fearing that the credibility of elections will be greatly compromised, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) alongside the National Press Club of the Philippines (NPC) and a growing number of concerned retired officers and enlisted men of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), former government officials and employees expressed their disapproval over the collaboration between the COMELEC and Rappler through a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) for alleged fact-checking, poll-related content production, and voters awareness promotion during the election season at the weekly virtual press briefing of the National Task Force to End Local Communists Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) on Monday.

Former Undersecretary Abraham Puruganan, speaking for the group calling themselves as Warriors for Unity, Peaceful and Honest Elections composed of some 235 former government officials and retired officers and enlisted men from the Armed Forces and the police, stated that “this arrangement endangers the credibility and integrity of the electoral process and puts the will of the people at risk.”

“We call upon COMELEC to immediately rescind this Memorandum of Agreement,” the group said, adding that they are backing the move of the OSG as the “People’s Lawyer” in filing a petition before the Supreme Court to declare the MOA void for being unconstitutional, adding that “We should stand together and protect our electoral process, for the will of the people to prevail,” Puruganan said.

The OSG is asking the High Court that a foreign-funded Rappler should not be allowed to interfere or get involved in Philippine elections.  According to the OSG: “It is beyond belief that COMELEC has allowed a foreign non-registered entity to interfere the conduct of the country’s elections,” referring to the fact that Rappler is a “foreign mass media entity managed by an American citizen and whose operations are funded and/or controlled by foreign entities that include Omidyar Network Fund L.L.C.”

“Every Filipino deserves and aspires for a free, orderly, honest, peaceful, and credible elections. However, these constitutional goals cannot be attained if the COMELEC is allowed to continue its void and unconstitutional partnership with Rappler. The Rappler-COMELEC MOA must be declared null and void,” the OSG represented by Solicitor General Jose Calida said in their press statement read by Undersecretary Lorraine Badoy, NTF-ELCAC spokesperson, during the virtual briefing.

Badoy said that aside from being a foreign entity, Rappler is at the “bottom of the heap” in terms of its credibility to the Filipino public, referring to the trust rating released by the Reuters Institute and University of Oxford where the internet-based media organization ranked at the bottom along with tabloid newspapers.

Another survey initiated by Publicus Asia also gave Rappler with the lowest “overall trustworthiness” rating among 16 major news outlets in the country.

While Paul Gutierrez, president of the NPC, one of the largest media organizations in the country, on the other hand said that while they were the first one to approach the COMELEC to help the agency in having a “transparent and credible” elections, COMELEC instead engaged Rappler.

Gutierrez pointed out that it was only now that James Jimenez, COMELEC spokesperson, wrote the NPC that it will also welcome a MoA with the organization.  “Para kaming biglang sinuhulan. The question here is the credibility of Rappler,” Gutierrez said.

In the interest of transparency, Gutierrez said that the COMELEC and Rappler should bare the contents of the MOA so the people can decide for themselves if the deal is good or bad for the nation.

Artemio A. Dumlao