CA rejects Rappler exec’s travel plea

FILE: Ressa, along with managing editor Glenda Gloria and five other members of Rappler’s 2016 board Manuel Ayala, James Bitanga, Nico Jose Nolledo, James Velasquez, and Felicia Atienza, were charged for allegedly violating the Anti-Dummy Law. (File photo: NAIA Media Affairs Division via PNA)

MANILA – The Court of Appeals (CA) has rejected a plea by journalist Maria Ressa seeking permission anew to travel abroad.

In its resolution dated Dec. 18, the appellate court’s Special Twelfth Division denied a third urgent motion for permission to travel filed by Ressa, the chief executive officer of online news site Rappler, for failing to disclose material facts in her previous requests.

“In view of Ressa’s failure to prove that her travel to the United States of America is necessary and urgent, coupled with the exceptional circumstances that warrant the restriction on her right to travel, there is no basis to grant her motion,” the court said.

“Once again, Ressa chose not to fully divulge an important fact. In her second motion, she failed to state that her supposed travel to Paris, France was not necessary since the event would be conducted through online platform,” it added.

The court said Ressa, in her second motion, deliberately withheld the reason why she wanted to visit her parents in the USA.

“Considering that this is the third time that Ressa has concealed a material fact, we deem it necessary to enjoin her from repeating a similar act since this resolution is without prejudice to a future necessary and urgent travel,” the appellate court said.

The court noted that while the lower court previously allowed Ressa to leave the country, her subsequent conviction in libel charges changes her situation.

It added that conviction warrants the exercise of greater caution in allowing a person admitted to bail from leaving the Philippines.