
The Court of Appeals (CA) has upheld its earlier decision declaring Rappler as Filipino-owned, rejecting the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) bid to overturn the ruling.
In a 15-page resolution dated July 11, the CA’s former special seventh division denied the SEC’s motion for reconsideration, saying:
“Perforce, without any new cogent or plausible justification raised in the present Motion, the Court sees no reason to have a change of mind. Wherefore, in view of the foregoing disquisition, respondents’ Motion for Reconsideration is denied for lack of merit.”
The decision reaffirms the CA’s August 2024 order restoring the Certificates of Incorporation of Rappler and Rappler Holdings Corporation, which had been revoked by the SEC during the Duterte administration. The SEC had ordered Rappler’s shutdown over Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) issued to foreign investor Omidyar Network, claiming these violated the constitutional ban on foreign ownership of mass media.
The appellate court, however, found that Rappler had been given “preferential treatment — a negative one” by the SEC, and reiterated that Omidyar’s donation of the PDRs to Rappler eliminated the supposed violation.
Associate Justice Emily San Gaspar Gito wrote the ruling, joined by Associate Justices Ramon Cruz and Mary Charlene Hernandez Azura.
The CA also rebuked the SEC for mischaracterizing the case as a press freedom issue, stressing that it was the SEC itself that “disregarded” the law when it ignored the CA 12th Division’s 2018 directive to review the legal impact of Omidyar’s donation.
“Unfortunately, respondents are unable to ‘enforce’ the law upon themselves. Thus, this Court had to do it,” the CA said.
The 2018 ruling noted that Rappler’s PDR deal with a foreign investor might suggest “some foreign control” but granted the company “reasonable time” to correct the questionable provisions — a period Rappler used to restructure and remove the alleged foreign ownership element.