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Philippine journalist Maria Ressa (C) speaks during a press conference after attending the court's verdict promulgation in Manila on June 15, 2020. Ressa was convicted on June 15 of cyber libel and sentenced to prison in a case that watchdogs say marks a dangerous erosion of press freedom under President Rodrigo Duterte.
AFP / Ted Aljibe
MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Solicitor General (SolGen) has recommended the acquittal of Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. in their cyberlibel case against businessman Wilfredo Keng.
In a statement on Tuesday, March 10, the SolGen said the criminal charges against Ressa and Santos were filed beyond the legal time limit.
The office filed the motion before the Supreme Court of the Philippines on March 9.
The SolGen cited a landmark Supreme Court ruling in Berteni Cataluña Causing v. People, which was published in early 2024.
In that case, the high court clarified that cyber libel offenses prescribe in just one year, consistent with the Revised Penal Code, rather than the 15 years previously understood under the Tolentino doctrine.
RELATED: SC: Prescription period for cyber libel is 1 year, not 12,15 years
Applying the Causing ruling, the SolGen noted that the criminal information against Ressa and Santos was filed in early 2019 for an article republished in 2014 and discovered by the complainant in 2016.
Under the new one-year prescription rule, which is reckoned from the discovery of the post, the SolGen concluded that the prosecution is now "time-barred."
“Although the OSG previously sought reconsideration in Causing, it manifested in a filing likewise made on March 9, 2026, that the government now accepts the Court’s decision as it supplies a workable, predictable limiting principle on prescription,” the SolGen said.
“On this basis, the OSG sought to apply the Causing ruling to the case of Ressa and Santos,” it added.
However, the SolGen clarified that its recommendation does not mean cyber libel is protected speech.
“The OSG however underscored that cyber libel is not protected speech. Its penal sanction under existing law remains important, particularly in the digital environment where reputational injury, invasions of privacy, and harm to dignity may be amplified in reach and velocity,” the SolGen said.
“Still, the OSG emphasized that the government now recognizes that the Court’s clarification in Causing is more in accord with the text of the Revised Penal Code and the Cybercrime Prevention Act, and helps balance the State’s interest in protecting reputation, privacy, and dignity, with the constitutional guarantees of speech, expression, and press freedom,” it added.
Ressa’s case. The cyberlibel complaint was filed in 2017 by Keng over a 2012 Rappler story linking him to former Chief Justice Renato Corona.
A Manila Regional Trial Court convicted both on June 15, 2020, sentencing them to six months to six years in prison plus P400,000 in damages each.
In October 2022, the Court of Appeals of the Philippines junked their appeal, prompting them to file a petition for certiorari before the Supreme Court in 2022.
