 |
| Rigoberto Tiglao and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. | Photo from Google and wfdd |
Former
diplomat and veteran columnist Rigoberto Tiglao has published an open letter
for Reynaldo Santos, Jr., the author of Rappler’s libelous article against
businessman Wilfredo Keng.
Tiglao
reached out to Santos through his column in the hopes to communicate after the latter
became unreachable.
“As
expected, your and Ms. Maria Ressa’s conviction for libel filed by a
businessman whom your article claimed was a criminal, has riled the US
establishment and its media. They are claiming that this episode again
demonstrates that President Duterte has been out for years to get Rappler and
Ressa.” Said Tiglao
The columnist
cited that some of the American personalities were outraged when Ressa was
convicted because they consider her as “one of them”.
“The bigger
picture though is that the US want President Duterte and his camp toppled, as
he has been a huge obstacle to its so-called
“Pivot to Asia” program which was accelerated in 2012, which seeks not
only to maintain American hegemony in the region but to block the rise of a
superpower that could eclipse it, China.” Tiglao said
“For the
first time ever in our history, a Philippine president has dared to declare the
country’s total independence from the claws of the American eagle.”*
“Worse,
Duterte’s independent foreign policy has drawn us to what after all should be
our natural ally, China.” He added
Tiglao said
it was Duterte who undid the huge gains of the US made during Aquino’s time but
its intelligence, that is said to be embedded in the media, has been ordered to
throw everything at the current president.
“Duterte
dismantled the huge gains the US had made through his predecessor Benigno
Aquino 3rd, who made the country its proxy in containing China in the South
China Sea. It had succeeded in maneuvering Aquino to file the arbitration case
against China, the results of which have benefited not us, but the US. Under
Aquino, the US restored its military bases — in a modern form — it lost in
1992, disguised through the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA). The US intelligence community — which is embedded
in media — has been instructed to throw everything at Duterte, and this false
press freedom issue is one of them.” The former diplomat said*
Tiglao
appealed Santos to show his “patriotism and nationalism, as you are in a
unique position to totally dismantle this fiction that Rappler has merely been
doing his job.”
Tiglao
alleged Marites Vitug fed the wrong information about Keng or she may have
written the libelous article herself.
“Vitug
vigorously pursued the publication of your supposed article as she was deeply
involved in the propaganda campaign to blacken the embattled Chief Justice
Renato Corona, in order to ease the senators’ consciences in removing Corona,
who had a well-known reputation as an upright, incorruptible person.” Tiglao
wrote
He also
pointed out that maybe at the end, Ressa and Rappler may throw Santos under the
bus.
“Ressa’s
actually delighted over her conviction as she will again be hailed as the
“champion of press freedom,” which has been her only claim to journalistic
excellence, and add another award to her collection. She is dreaming that she
will again be Time’s Person of the Year, and this time she will not have to be
with two other journalists.” Tiglao said
Ending his the letter, Tiglao said “Why should you suffer for an immoral cause? The nation is
more important than friends, family and definitely former colleagues who took
advantage of your idealism. All you have to do is speak the truth.”
0 Comments