Rappler chief Maria Ressa posts P300,000 travel bond
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2019 11:09:52 +0000
RAPPLER Inc. Chief Maria Ressa posted a P300,000 travel bond, which a Manila court had set for her trips this March and April.
Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa of Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 46 originally set the bond at P500,000, but Ressa’s lawyer, Theodore Te, filed a motion for reduction on the ground that it was “unreasonable, excessive, disproportionate and effectively denies her right to travel based on conditions not contemplated by the Constitution.”
Te asked the court to reduce the bond’s amount to between P50,000 and P100,000, arguing that it is five times the amount of bail and that “excessive bail is prohibited and the Supreme Court has consistently held that the grant of bail in a disproportionately excessive amount is effectively a denial of the right to bail.”
Aside from posting a bond, other conditions set by Estacio-Montesa were: Ressa’s travel itinerary be limited to the places stated in her motion to travel, and she shall give the court a written advice within 24 hours from her return to the country.
Ressa is bound for Singapore on Friday morning, and then to San Francisco. She will be back on March 29.
Branch 46 also rescheduled Ressa and co-accused former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr.’s date of arraignment to April 16 from April 12 because she would be in Italy to speak at the International Journal Festival and in New York City from April 2 to 14.
From April 21 to April 28, Ressa will attend a conference and other business events in New York.
Ressa was arrested on February 13 and was detained at the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cybercrime Division office in Manila. She was freed after posting a
P100,000-bail. Santos also voluntarily posted bail on February 15. Law enforcers did not serve his warrant of arrest.
Both of them are accused of violating the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
The complaint was filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng in connection with an article written by Santos and posted by Rappler on May 29,
2012, titled “CJ using SUVs of ‘controversial’ businessmen,” which claimed that Keng owned the sports utility vehicle that the late chief justice
Renato Corona used during his impeachment trial, four months before the law was enacted.
Keng cried foul over the background that the story attached to him by Santos. The story quoted an intelligence report from the NBI, associating him with human trafficking and illegal drugs. CATHERINE A. MODESTO
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