A grand oust Duterte plot?
Maria Ressa and her foreign partner’s Rappler have just made their cases in the Philippines a lot harder to win, what with their having hired American lobbyists to
“take on” President Duterte and, as many know, hiring US lobbyists doesn’t come cheap.
The question then is: Just who is financing Ressa and for what purpose? To get the US government to interfere in the affairs of an independent and sovereign country with the probable aim to get its duly elected President ousted.
Such an expensive plot could get Ressa and her Rappler in bigger trouble that can land her in jail — and without bail, too.
As the cable TV CNBC said, Ressa hired a “lobbying juggernaut to take on Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, one of Donald Trump’s most loyal allies in the region.”
Such a move by Ressa could hardly be kept secret. United States laws are strict on lobbying disclosures, which is why the two partners, Covington & Burling, were hired to help her with a foreign relations campaign to aid her with the intended foreign relations campaign against Duterte.
And it’s not just Covington & Burling that has been tapped. The CNBC report stated that Peter Lichtenbaum and Kurt Wimmer are working with Ressa to “build awareness and concern about the unfounded charges brought against Rappler and its CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa in the Philippines.”
The Covington leaders were registered to lobby for Ressa effective Friday.
Building awareness or coming up with false information to bring down a duly elected Philippine president?
In the past two
coups d’état that occurred in this country, the American government was highly involved in the undemocratic move against the then dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, and again, there was the US again, plotting with the opposition forces against then sitting president Joseph Estrada, who was not a dictator but a duly elected and popular president, and only because Estrada denied the request of the US government to stop his launch against the Muslim insurgents, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. It was a war he succeeded in, as the rebel chieftains left and went into hiding in Malaysia. This is why today, thanks to the US’s interference in the Philippines, Islamic State recruitment is at a high in this country.
If there was no coup that succeeded during the time of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, it was mainly because she was clearly pro-American in her policies.
Ressa’s US lawyers explained in an email that they anticipate providing legal counsel for Ressa and Rappler, as well as briefing US policymakers.
“We anticipate that in addition to providing US legal counsel, our role will include briefing US policymakers who are concerned with freedom of expression and the rule of law so that they understand all of the facts surrounding the Philippine government’s treatment of Ms. Ressa and Rappler,”
Wimmer said. Facts or fake information on the Philippine government’s treatment of Ressa and
Rappler?
The CBNC report said despite the lobbying disclosure of the US companies, “the documents do not show who they will be
reaching out to in
“If the rule of law is what these US lawyers claim to educate the US congressmen and senators, they should step back and read the 1987 Philippine Constitution.
Washington with this new campaign,” and that “any attempt to work directly with Trump’s administration might prove to be futile due to the president’s good relationship with Duterte.
Besides, there are just too many problems being encountered by US President Donald Trump, who worries about his diluted chances for reelection, apart from the other bigger problems eating up the Americans, such as racism, recession and Russia, as well as the problem of North Korea’s ongoing nuclearization program.
But knowing that the lobbyists and their lawyers, being US citizens, cannot practice law in this country, what is likely is that the lobbyists’ lawyers will hire Philippine lawyers to represent Ressa and her Rappler.
But no matter how these US lobbyists and lawyers Ressa has hired, the truth is it will prove highly difficult for them to win the case for Ressa, simply because of the Philippine Constitution. If the rule of law is what these US lawyers claim to “educate” the US congressmen and senators, they should step back and read the 1987 Philippine Constitution, whose provisions have to be followed in this country. One provision states very clearly that Philippine media has to be 100 percent owned by Filipinos. One needs an amendment to change this provision and, right now, Filipinos are in no mood for charter change.
Pierre Omidyar, who is more known in this country as being involved in getting news media to write damaging articles against a government leader whom he wants ousted, is a partner of Ressa’s Rappler, which is a no-no in this country. And no amount of Ressa and her lawyers trying to wiggle out of it is going to change the meaning of Omidyar as Ressa and Rappler’s media partner.
The country’s Securities and Exchange Commission has all the records that show the clear violations of the Constitution and our laws engaged in by Rappler.
But perhaps this US lobbying firm is just a part of the ploy. Perhaps, a bigger task has been planned, which if found to be an ouster plot, would get not only Ressa in jail but also ban her foreign lobbyists and Omidyar from entering the Philippines.
“Building awareness or coming up with false information to bring down a duly elected Philippine president?