PSG blocks Rappler’s Pia Ranada from entering Palace

The Presidential Security Group (PSG) blocked Rappler reporter Pia Ranada from entering the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malacañang on Monday morning. (Photo: Pia Ranada/Twitter)

The Presidential Security Group (PSG) blocked Rappler reporter Pia Ranada from entering the New Executive Building (NEB) in Malacañang on Monday morning.

“PSG’s Marc Anthony Cempron tells me there were instructions from ‘up there’ to bar me, specifically, from entering Malacañang,” Ranada said.

The journalist said she was held at the gate for at least 10 minutes before the security personnel allowed her to enter the premises after clarification of order. Ranada stressed that she was allowed to pass through the building but not in the Palace itself, where the events of President Rodrigo Duterte are held.

“PSG says they clarified order. I can enter the press working area in NEB but not Malacañang Palace itself,” she said.

Responding to Ranada’s question on who issued the order, Cempron said that it was from their “operation,” but refused to drop the name of the official behind it. It was also not clear until when the prevention order would take effect.

The Malacañan press briefing room, where the Malacañang Press Corps (MPC) works, is situated inside the NEB.

Ranada, Rappler’s Palace reporter, has been reporting about Duterte since the campaign period in 2016. She is also a member of the MPC.

During a Palace briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said that the Office of the Executive Secretary (OES) clarified that the media outlet is still welcome to cover Malacañang while its appeal to the Court of Appeals (CA) on the revocation of its license to do business is still pending.

“You are still allowed until the appeal is resolved by the Court of Appeals. If it is sustained, you will have to move to FOCAP [Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines], the media group for foreign correspondents because the decision of the SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission] is that you are foreign-control,” the Palace official said.

Last month, SEC ordered the revocation of the online news site to operate, stating that Rappler and its controlling shareholder Rappler Holdings Corp. were “liable for violating the constitutional and statutory Foreign Equity Restrictions in Mass Media enforceable through rules and laws within the mandate of the Commission.”

Rappler, however, said that despite the “attacks” against them, they vowed to continue bringing the news, “holding the powerful to account for their actions and decisions, calling attention to government lapses that disempower the disadvantaged.”

“We’ve been through a lot together, through good and bad – sharing stories, building communities, inspiring hope, uncovering wrongdoing, battling trolls, exposing the fake,” Rappler said in its statement earlier.