Muckraking opinion columnist Rigoberto Tiglao is not the only person loudly sounding the false alarm over the partnership between the COMELEC and Rappler. Solicitor General Jose Calida has warned the COMELEC to scrap the deal or face a lawsuit.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/topstories/nation/823504/solgen-urges-comelec-to-junk-moa-with-rappler-or-face-court-case/story/ |
Calida, in a statement, claimed that the MOA unlawfully gives Rappler, a foreign entity, access to confidential data on registered voters and the power to decide the election.
"The MOA's provisions are also problematic for encroaching the Comelec's power and rights. Rappler's history of disseminating unverified and sometimes, false claims also render it unfit for fundamental purpose envisioned under the MOA," the Solicitor General argued further.
"The OSG, as its (Comelec's) statutory counsel, has urged the Comelec to rescind the MOA within five days or until March 4. Otherwise, the OSG, as People's lawyer, may have to file the necessary case in court to declare the nullity of MOA by March 7."
The full statement is as follows:
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https://mobile.twitter.com/lianbuan/status/1498260198498406403 |
SOLICITOR GENERAL TO COMELEC: DON'T MAKE RAPPLER HAVE THE "MONOPOLY OF TRUTHS!"
Solicitor General Jose C. Calida, the government's top lawyer, urges the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to unilaterally rescind the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) it entered into with Rappler, Inc. (Rappler) for being violative of the Constitution and other laws, not to mention its being onerous to the Government and the Republic.
COMELEC inked a partnership with Rappler on 24 February 2022 for fact-checking, poll-related content production, and voter awareness promotion during the election season.
Solicitor General Calida claimed that the provisions of the MOA "will unwittingly grant Rappler, a foreign-funded entity, the monopoly of truths arising from its claimed fact-checking accreditation from international entities."
COMELEC's MOA with Rappler violates the Constitution and relevant laws.
On 15 January 2018, the Securities and Exchange Commission revoked Rappler's Certificate of Incorporation, in effect its license to operate, for violating the Constitution, P.D. No. 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.
Even assuming that Rappler is still an existing corporate entity, it is subject to the foreign equity restriction under the Constitution. Thus, the MOA contravenes this Constitutional limitation and the proscription against foreign participation in the conduct of the elections.
The MOA's provisions are also problematic for encroaching the COMELEC's power and rights.
Under the MOA, the COMELEC's power to decide on all questions affecting elections is essentially being "co-shared" with a Rappler's purported civic engagement arm, MovePH, as the extent of the latter's "assistance" was neither delineated nor specified. Worse, the MOA even lacks a set of qualifications of the persons who will comprise MovePH to ensure that these persons are impartial and non-partisan.
Certain intellectual property rights were also granted to Rappler as the MOA authorized Rappler to produce a bi-monthly primetime show for election-related information and co-produce the Radyo COMELEC podcast show.
The MOA also empowered Rappler to "alert" the COMELEC on any election-related claims in social media. This presupposes that Rappler will determine what is deemed "false, misleading, and harmful" information absent any delineated guidelines on what constitutes as such.
Rappler is also permitted to establish "PHVote Microsite," a mobile-friendly section in its website that will contain information on the electoral process, candidates, and their platforms, among others. Curiously, there is nothing in the MOA that states that the COMELEC shall first vet and review the information about a candidate that Rappler will post in the microsite. This grants Rappler an unbridled discretion on what information it may post regarding a candidate.
Rappler is also given access to confidential data of registered voters. Considering that the COMELEC will share personal data with Rappler, a data-sharing agreement should have been executed under National Privacy Commission Circular No. 16-02.
Rappler's previous history of disseminating unverified and, sometimes, false claims also render it unfit for the fundamental purpose envisioned under the MOA. Most importantly, Rappler is incapable of fulfilling its obligation under the MOA in light of recent Distributed-Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks on its entire system, which shows its extreme vulnerability to data breaches.
Local media outfits, including members of the National Press Club, which are Constitutionally qualified to undertake the role given to Rappler can do a much better job. Solicitor General Calida asserted that if Rappler goes on to implement the MOA, the credibility and integrity of the 2022 elections will be in shatters.
The OSG, as its statutory counsel, has urged the COMELEC to rescind the MoA within five (5) days, or until 4 March 2022. Otherwise, the OSG, as the People's lawyer, may have to file the necessary case in court to declare the nullity of the MOA by 7 March 2022.
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| https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/things-to-know-comelec-voter-precinct-finder/ |
According to Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez, the precinct finder on Rappler and other organizations that wish to “host” it will simply be a “mirror” of the Comelec’s own precinct finder.
The Comelec will be supplying embed codes and not a full list of voters and their precincts. This means that third party websites will not have access to the actual databases.
This is similar to the way YouTube allows the embedding of video on third party websites. The user can view the video while visiting the website that has the embed code. But the underlying application is actually hosted on YouTube’s servers.
“The databases will still remain within the confines of Comelec’s own servers protected, of course, by the DICT’s (Department of Information and Technology’s) firewalls,” said Jimenez in the press briefing with Rappler on February 24.
The source code of applications implementing the precinct finder will also be subject to the review of the Comelec and the Department of Information and Communications Technology.
The Comelec clarified that other groups, not just Rappler, who want access to this service may likewise apply.
Rappler and the other hosts will only be mirroring the search function, the Comelec said.
Allowing mirrors is “very necessary,” the Comelec said. As election day draws nearer, Jimenez said usage of the precinct finder increases.
“If you were to just have one outlet doing it, like the Comelec website lang, for example, sigurado dadapa ‘yan kaagad-agad (it will surely crash immediately),” said Jimenez.
Not only will Rappler not have access to confidential voter information but any media group that wants to host the precinct finder can apply to the COMELEC to do so. In 2016 GMA hosted the precinct finder.
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| https://www.gmanetwork.com/news/eleksyon2016/find_your_precinct/ |
But access to confidential data is not the only lie being pushed by Rappler's detractors. BongBong Marcos' lawyer Benhur Abalos claims that Rappler could use the precinct finder to mislead voters so that they do not get to vote.
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| https://www.rappler.com/nation/elections/ferdinand-bongbong-marcos-jr-calida-in-sync-comelec-memorandum-agreement-2022/ |
Marcos’ campaign manager Benhur Abalos told reporters Monday that Comelec should reconsider the agreement, falsely claiming that Rappler is a foreign entity.
Calida followed suit Monday evening, saying “Comelec’s MOA with Rappler violates the Constitution and relevant laws.”
The solicitor general, who campaigned for Marcos in the latter’s failed vice presidential bid in 2016, gave the poll body an ultimatum: “Rescind the MOA within 5 days or until March 4, 2022. Otherwise the OSG as the peoples’ lawyer may have to file the necessary case in court to declare the nullity of the MOA by March 7, 2022.”
Citing a closure order by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 2018 against Rappler which he himself instigated, Calida said the company “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.”
Calida is wrong. As the SEC said in 2018, Rappler can run its business as usual until its order becomes final and executory. The case remains pending at the Court of Appeals (CA).
Calida also raised alarm over what he thought was Comelec’s decision to give “access to confidential data of registered voters” to Rappler when it allowed the organization to embed the poll body’s precinct finder feature on its site. Singing the same tune as Calida, Abalos said suggested that Rappler can mislead a voter looking for his or her precinct. “Papano kung ‘yung sistema eh mali ang maibigay sayong presinto, syempre sa haba ng pila kung magkamali ka ng presinto di ka na makakaboto,” said Abalos.
(What if the system is wrong and it gives you the wrong precinct, of course when the line is long and you go to the wrong precinct, maybe you will not be able to vote.)
But the precinct finder, a public service feature, is an arrangement with other groups as well. The partnership also does not allow outside party access to personal data.
The fact-checking part of the MOA, on the other hand, does not only involve Rappler but the entire #FactsFirstPH consortium, a collaboration among 14 news groups and over 100 civil society organizations.
This is not the first time that Marcos and Calida have been in sync on key legal moves.
In 2020, Marcos and Calida filed motions on the same day seeking to inhibit Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen from the electoral contest that the dictator’s son filed against Vice President Leni Robredo.
That scenario is impossible because the precinct finder will link directly to the COMELEC's database. Rappler will not have access to that information but will only host the precinct finder. It's one big hysterical lie from BongBong Marcos' camp.
The more one fact checks Calida's statement them more it unravels as a patchwork of lies. Calida says "Rappler will determine what is deemed "false, misleading, and harmful" information absent any delineated guidelines on what constitutes as such." The truth is Rappler will be working with a consortium of groups in the Philippines to fact check information.
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| https://www.rappler.com/moveph/list-organizations-part-facts-first-philippines-initiative/ |
The battle for facts needs as many groups and individuals as possible working together in promoting truth in the public space and exacting accountability from those who harm it with lies.
Heeding this challenge, media, coalitions, civil society groups, business organizations, and research and legal groups banded together to form #FactsFirstPH, an initiative described by Rappler CEO and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa as a “proactive fight against the use of social media for disinformation.”
It is a first-of-a-kind initiative that aims to debunk dubious claims online, make facts spread faster and further than hate and lies, flag disinformation narratives and actors, and hold online perpetrators accountable.
#FactsFirstPH is supported by non-profit technology partner Meedan, Google News Initiative, and Rappler.
I am not going to list all the partners here. Suffice to say Calida is wrong in claiming that Rappler will "have the monopoly of truths." It's a lie. It's all a lie. Everything Solicitor General Calida is saying about the COMELEC and Rappler MOA is a lie.
It is apparent that men like Rigoberto Tiglao and Solicitor General Jose Calida are not driven by truth in their ranting against the Rappler and COMELEC partnership. Instead they are driven by hatred for Rappler. A hatred that has blinded them to the truth.
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