Andanar: Ressa opinion piece ‘baseless, absurd’

MANILA, Philippines — A Palace official yesterday denounced Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa’s opinion piece in which she said President Duterte’s victory in 2016 was propelled by social media propaganda and for describing the current administration as brutal due to its drug war.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said Ressa’s allegations, which appeared in her piece for the Los Angeles Times on Sept. 25, are “baseless and absurd.”

“It is tragic that Ms. Ressa remains out of touch with the political realities on the ground as she continues to insinuate that President Duterte won through lies and fake propaganda,” he said. 

Andanar belied Ressa’s claim that “lies laced with anger and hate began to systematically tear our democracy apart in the Philippines,” and that “Like a virus, this disease spread fast. With the help of social media, President Rodrigo Duterte was elected in May 2016.”

He said the poll results in 2016 were credible, noting that succeeding surveys further showed the people’s trust to the President.

“The results speak for themselves,” said Andanar, a former broadcaster.

He belied Ressa’s claim that activists and news organizations face “top-down persecution by the government,” saying the President issued an executive order on freedom of information and signed a law protecting broadcast and online journalists from revealing their sources.

“The Duterte government makes sure that justice is served, regardless of any political leaning. It is not the policy and practice of the current government to ‘harass’ dissenters, as we only present our side of the story,” Andanar added.

As for Dutere’s victory in the 2016 polls, Andanar said Ressa “refuses to accept that the President is what the people truly wanted and needed.”

He said that contrary to Ressa’s claim, “this is not democracy being torn apart but rather democracy naturally playing out.”

Andanar said that a non-commissioned survey conducted in the third quarter of 2018 showed that 84 percent of Filipinos are satisfied with the way democracy works in the country. 

He also said the figure cited by Ressa of 27,000 drug addicts allegedly killed in Duterte’s drug war is baseless.

“Sticking to the hard facts that came from our law enforcement agencies, the number of unfortunate deaths from legitimate police operations are only 5,526,” Andanar said, adding that surveys show that the drug war has the backing of more than 80 percent of Filipinos.

Andanar assured the public that the government does not employ “disinformation tactics.”