Freedom of expression!? Lacson questions Rappler’s not publishing replies to ‘false’ articles

Not once, but twice.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson has questioned Monday the “policy” of Rappler in not publishing his replies to false and negative articles about him.

“I do not know their policy but we’ve written Rappler at least twice to refute and explain some false and negative stories about me. They were never printed. And I thought Rappler’s unflinching advocacy is freedom of expression,” Lacson said in a post on his Twitter account.

I do not know their policy but we’ve written Rappler at least twice to refute and explain some false and negative stories about me. They were never printed. And I thought Rappler’s unflinching advocacy is freedom of expression.

— PING LACSON (@iampinglacson) October 11, 2021

A check with Lacson’s website pinglacson.net showed Lacson’s office wrote Rappler to reply to opinion pieces by Walden Bello last August 15, and Vergel Santos last October 8.

In the letter reply dated Aug. 16, Lacson’s office addressed Bello’s article where Bello quoted Sen. Leila de Lima as accusing Lacson of being among the supposed “enablers and conspirators” of President Rodrigo Duterte.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Lacson’s office wrote.

[https://pinglacson.net/article/letter-to-the-editor-reply-to-walden-bello-rappler]

Last Oct. 10, Lacson’s office wrote Rappler to “disabuse the minds” of its readers by Santos, where he cited Lacson’s sponsorship of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 to bolster his accusation that Lacson helped further Duterte’s “authoritarian designs.”

“If Santos bothered to read the contents of the law instead of forcing a square peg into a round hole, he would have realized that the measure has a detailed definition of terrorism – and the proper safeguards against abuse, to boot,” Lacson’s office wrote.

Lacson’s office added the senator, as chairman of the Senate Defense Committee, acted as the sponsor of the Anti-Terrorism Act; and as one of the authors of the measure, saw the need to amend or repeal the Human Security Act of 2007 “to give our authorities the much-needed legal tools to fight terrorism, an atrocity that knows no borders.”

It also refuted Santos’ claim of Lacson being an “enabler” by noting Lacson had also called out and acted against wrongdoing and abuse under the Duterte administration as early as 2016, when he headed a probe into the killing of Albuera Mayor Rolando Espinosa.

Lacson also headed the investigation into the killing of Kian delos Santos, with the policemen who killed Kian later found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, it said.

“Meanwhile, it is ironic that Santos, a supposed advocate of press freedom, would pervert such a freedom by linking Sen. Lacson to abuses during Martial Law, without showing proof to back his insinuations. We thus wonder if Santos’ idea of press freedom includes freedom from responsible journalism,” Lacson’s office said.

[https://pinglacson.net/article/letter-to-the-editor-reply-to-walden-bello-rappler]

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)