Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is on a rampage following Bobi Tiglao’s explosive series of exposés on her dishonesty and hypocrisy.
Tiglao points out that Ressa is an American, bashing the Philippines and that as part of her commitment to American citizenship, she is sworn to “absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty, of whom or which [she had] been a subject or citizen.”
But Ressa “acquired Filipino citizenship in 2004 to make it legally easier for her to work as a manager at ABS-CBN Broadcasting, a media company where foreigners are banned by the Constitution from participating”, as Tiglao writes in his follow-on piece Rappler’s Ressa is a colossal con man. Indeed, she does have a “distressed career” to salvage. She today mounts a textbook Victimhood Campaign involving “her portrayal as a hapless journalist struggling against a powerful state”. And yet, in actual fact, “she is under the protection of the world’s most powerful nation” — her true motherland, the United States of America.
Understandably, Ressa is livid. But then asked by humble Netizens why she should not just file libel charges against Tiglao, Ressa responded in her usual arrogant, condescending, and haughty demeanour.
Of course, any schmoe can dismiss the opinion of a respected columnist as mere “fantasies”. She can even tweet that dismissal to her millions of followers as much as she wants. However, the way the world works today makes containing that growing sentiment a bit more difficult than merely throwing a sophomoric tantrum.
Ressa, of course, has the option of suing for libel. That’s when it gets interesting and what will separate the men from the boys. Your move, Maria Ressa.
