SC orders Comelec, Rappler to answer OSG petition vs info campaign deal

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the Commission on Elections and Rappler to file their respective comments on a petition seeking to nullify the two organizations' voter information campaign agreement.

Last week, the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) asked the high court to void the Comelec-Rappler memorandum of agreement (MOA), which authorized the news site to provide election-related information for the May 9 polls.

The Comelec has since suspended the implementation of the agreement as a result of the OSG petition.

“The Court En Banc during its deliberations today ordered the respondents to file their respective comments on the petition and application for a TRO within a non-extendable period of 10 days,” SC spokesman Brian Hosaka said in a message to reporters.

“Respondents to file their comments via personal service to the Court,” he added.

Solicitor General Jose Calida’s petition came several days after he warned the poll body it would face a court case if it did not heed the OSG's call for the MOA to be rescinded.

Calida has claimed that Rappler is a foreign corporation, and that its participation in the Philippine elections through the MOA was thus considered foreign interference, a violation of the country's election laws and the 1987 Constitution.

However, Rappler had repeatedly stressed that it was a Filipino-owned entity and the MOA was the same pact that the poll body entered into with other media organizations to inform the electorate of factual poll-related information. — VBL, GMA News