POLITICAL ANALYSTS SLAM SOLGEN OVER MOVE TO REVERSE RESSA’S CYBER LIBEL CONVICTION

POLITICAL analysts have criticized Solicitor General Darlene Marie Berberabe for asking the Supreme Court to overturn the cyber libel conviction of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa.

Alex Magno and Roberto Tiglao, political analysts and columnists, described the move by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) as inappropriate and lacking courtesy toward the High Court.

The Office of the SolGen recently filed a “Manifestation with Recommendation for Acquittal” urging the Supreme Court to acquit Ressa.

A Manila Regional Trial Court in 2020 convicted Ressa of cyber libel. The case was filed by a businessman in 2019.

The decision of the lower court was unanimously upheld by the Court of Appeals in July 2022.

Ressa was sentenced to a prison term ranging from eight months and 20 days to six years, The court also ordered her to pay a P400,000 fine.

In November 2022, Ressa and her co-accused, Reynaldo Santos Jr., appealed to the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling.

Magno, a longtime political science faculty member of the University of the Philippines (UP), described the move of the SolGen as improper.

In his column titled “discourteous” published on March 21, 2026, Magno said that Berberabe, as the Solicitor General, should be representing the government and not her friends, adding that an obvious alleged conflict of interest may appear to her action for allegedly defending a friend’s interest because she once lawyered the defendant. “

Magno also added in his column that Berberabe is expected to represent the government, not personal friends, before the courts.

Tiglao, in his March 23, 2026 column, said “to save Ressa, SolGen ignored the Constitution and disrespected the SC.”

Tiglao said “no doctrine or principle of law laid down by the court in a decision rendered en banc or in division maybe modified or reversed except by the Supreme Court sitting en banc.”

“SolGen Berberabe shocked the legal community when she asked the court to acquit Ressa, claiming the one-year prescriptive period for the crime had lapsed, pointing to an October 2023 decision by the Supreme Court,” Tiglao stated in his column.

“She conveniently ignored an earlier 2018 court ruling in Tolentino vs. People Case (GR 24031, Aug. 6, 2018) that the prescription period is 15 years,” he added.

Political observers, meanwhile, agreed with the sentiments of Magno and Tiglao, saying the OSG can do a lot of things in the middle of crisis (brought about by the war in the Middle East) to help the country rather than focusing on asking the SC to acquit Ressa.