Imagine being criminally charged for spreading awareness of injustice in your country. Can you stay silent with the innocent children and people dying? Is it wrong to report crimes that your president and the police force have committed?
Some people may say yes and continue to be ignorant in their day-to-day lives.
However, Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist, did not stay silent about the corruption of the Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte and the war on drugs. Ressa is the owner and CEO of the independent news source, Rappler. The Rappler is one of the few new sources that would even dare to criticize President Duterte’s policies and report on the thousands who have died.
President Rodrigo Duterte was elected as president in 2016. He won with the commitment to eliminate the crime and drug gangs in the Philippines within three to six months. Duterte was known as “the Punisher” from his brutal crime tactics when he was mayor of Davao City. He took pride in extrajudicial killings since it was getting rid of people addicted to drugs and drug dealers as mayor and president. When in reality, it was targeting people from the urban poor areas and based on suspicion.
While Duterte was president, he ensured that the police and military forces would receive immunity from any deaths they caused in their duties. It was legal to kill anyone they suspected of doing drugs or selling drugs. Police officers have admitted that they received money incentives that ranged from $150 to $300 for any drug suspect they murdered.
There have been thousands of innocent people and children who have died from the war on drugs. In one of the cases, Roger Herrero was shot in the jaw by the police in 2018. He was accused of robbery and trying to flee on a motorcycle. However, Herrero has never driven on a motorcycle before and is just a father of four kids. He played dead until the police left and asked for help. Herrero survived and got justice for the four policemen who were found guilty on April 25, 2023, of attempted murder.
Another horrible incident was the murder of a four-year-old, Althea Fhem Barbon, and her father. They were shot by the police as they were on a motorbike. The police accused Barbon’s father of being a drug dealer. A similar incident occurred for three-year-old Myca Ulpina, who was shot during the police raid that targeted her father. There was a claim by the police that Myca was used as a shield during the raid. Additionally, the police killed 17-year-old Kian delos Santos in an alley near his home. The police claimed that Santos had a knife on him, when in reality, he begged the police to let him go since he had exams the next day. There is evidence in CCTV footage of the police dragging Santos, who was unarmed before he was shot.
No human being, regardless of age, was free from being killed.
It has been reported by the Philippine National Police that about 7,000 Filipinos have died from the time Duterte became president. However, the accurate estimated amount was reported by the International Criminal Court Prosecutor to be 30,000 Filipinos dead.
Ressa and the Rappler were convicted of a series of tax evasion charges in November 2018 by President Duterte to silence them. They have been verbally attacked, verbally assaulted, and online harassed for spreading awareness. Ressa and Reynaldo Santos Jr. have been charged with “cyber libel,” and they’re currently still on bail. The law of cyber libel came out four months after the article from Rappler was posted. However, future edits of a typo on the article made it liable.
Duterte and his administration made everyone believe that Rappler was reporting fake news and information about him. There have been 12 journalists who died in the first two years of Duterte’s presidency for reporting on the issues about him and the updated toll of deaths from the war on drugs.
A new form of censorship helped to silence journalists like Maria Ressa, Rappler, and other news sources about President Duterte. Political allies of Duterte used distributed censorship on media platforms like Facebook, where they would flood it with bots and fill it with false information. The fake news helped block out independent news sources, where Filipino citizens believed in the propaganda of President Duterte.
On March 12, 2025, President Duterte surrendered to the International Criminal Court and is currently awaiting trial for his crimes against humanity. As of recently, Duterte was denied release from detention since he is a flight risk.
Maria Ressa was able to get all five of the tax evasion charges acquitted on September 23, 2023. She has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Dmitry Muratov for the continuous fight for press freedom. Regardless of Ressa facing criminal charges, she has never stopped reporting on the injustice of Duterte and the war on drugs. Maria Ressa is an inspiration for all Filipinos and people around the world to continue using their voice, platform, and words to address the injustice around us.
What will make you stand up for justice like Maria Ressa, regardless of targets on your back? Or will you continue to turn a blind eye and remain ignorant?
This article caught my eye because I am half Filipino and my mom immigrated from the Philippines when she was a teenager. I would always hear from her how the government in the Philippines is corrupt. She would tell me stories of how violent crimes would be ignored and that if you had power, you could get away with a lot. From reading this article, I can now see what she meant. Answering the question you had at the end, I like to think that I would stand up for justice and what I believe even if it risks my life. But that is easier said than done. Honestly, I am just grateful that the United States is not corrupt like the Philippines and that we have protected rights.