Duterte vs the press ( or is it vs the CIA?)

the WSJ article says Duterte shut down Rappler for being critical of him.

Not Duterte, of course, but the government office that regulates the press.

The nation’s Securities and Exchange Commission said in a statement published on its website Monday that it had found Rappler Inc. liable for violating constitutional requirements on foreign-ownership limits and revoked the company’s certificate of incorporation.

the Philippines doesn't like foreigners to own businesses or properties here. I can't even own my own house or inherit my husband's rice farm.

the real question: Is Rappler owned illegally by non citizens? And behind that question is this one: did those foreign investors influence the stories covered by Rappler? Did they want to manipulate the news for their own nefarious purposes. (/s)

Rappler, which is run under respected journalist Maria Ressa is well known for their in depth exposes of problems in the Philippines. One doesn't need a bribe to investigate corruption, be it Duterte's murderous wars or the severe problems with corruption ignored by the previous president, who was seen by much of the MSM as being Mr Clean.

Rappler has been very critical on Duterte's "war on drugs" that has led to so many deaths directly (by cops in raids) or indirectly (i.e. vigilante/pay back murders that won't be prosecuted, and drug pushers killing snitches). But so has everyone else. So why shut only them down?

Because they are good at getting the details? Maybe.

but the story is a bit more complicated, as this Inquirer (a center left paper) editorial discusses. Because Rappler is not only accused of being funded by (illegal) foreign money, but there was a real question if foreign money influenced reporting.

Rappler denies both outside influence and outside funding for their site:

Rappler explained: “Our foreign investors, Omidyar Network and North Base do not own Rappler. They invest, but they don’t own. …
Read more: http://opinion.inquirer.net/101420/does-the-cia-own-rappler#ixzz54IySkk6d 

But it is interesting that the Inquirer headline is:   Does the CIA own Rappler? because that was the charge that really upset everyone.

here is the backstory:

As I have mentioned before, even Mariam noted that the last election was between the communist candidate (Duterte is sympathetic to them, both the local NPA and China) and the CIA Candidate aka the American girl.

And it didn't help that for the election, the US sent in an Ambassador who had been thrown out of Bolivia for interfering with their elections, and who, after the election was won by Duterte, left behind a blueprint to undermine Duterte.

The Manila Times October 2017 has a story on how this is done, and the similarities on how it was done by the same folks in the Ukraine a couple years ago.

The NED initially extended modest funds to Ukrainian opposition groups, and increased them substantially as the political crisis in that country broke out that led to the overthrow in 2014 of pro-Russia Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, to be replaced by pro-US leaders.

NED president Carl Gershman, who has been openly rabidly anti-Russian would boast after Yanukovych’s fall: “Ukraine is the biggest prize“. (Another US outfit that has funded NGOs in Ukraine that helped topple Yanukovych is Omidyar Network, owned by tycoon Pierre Omdiyar. It is one of the two foreign financiers of another anti-Duterte media outfit, Rappler.)

connect the dots... follow the money...

is it fake news, or is it just smoke and mirrors by Duterte's minions to destroy an honest press?

Hmm.. a lot of this story resembles the American fake news manipulations, such as Hillary's post election plan to undermine Trumpie boy with the Russia Russia RUSSIA claims, and now that that is fading, with bimbo eruption rumors. (This last won't dent Duterte's popularity: having bimbos on the side just makes him look macho, and Filipinos admire macho)..

Shutting down an opposition paper is not a good thing.

On the other hand, as the Inquirer editorial points out: the laws regulating foreign ownership need to be reformed, but until the law is fixed, Rappler's denials look more like smoke screens than the way an honest person would respond to charges.

Rappler quoted Mocha Uson claiming it “is allegedly funded by the (US Central Intelligence Agency),” then replied, “LOL!” Bashers spread memes of its GIS saying it does “property and investment development” and “SPO4 Pia Rañada-Robles.”

One hopes the spat continues to amuse using more accurate legal terminology. 

yes:

In summary, the errors in it's financial papers make Rappler suspect for foreign interference.

And the irony?

in a land where corruption/bribes and kickbacks are the way things work, they got caught.

Guess they didn't know enough to fix the books, or maybe they were just too honest and naive.

Heck, even in the US, it's easy to hide bribes/influence peddling by masking them as something else; for example, making contributions to the politician's charitable foundation.