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ON THE EVE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

The chaos in our country is already too much.

The children suffer from poverty.

I feel great pity for them.

The children suffer in this world of violence, drugs and corruption.

A courageous president is needed.

Director of photography Lutz Reitemeier

Before Duterte came, Davao was chaotic.

Duterte can handle the chaos in this country.

Courage and care! Duterte is the right one!

Sound Mark G. Laccay

So interesting to see. I remember.

I interviewed you a long long time ago, when…

1987.

Yeah. 88 election, it was 87 when I was the vice mayor.

I really do not know

what was the occasion there, but I remember

talking to you.

That's why I said, it was years, years. Okay.

Sure.

Where is my camera? Okay.

He will follow you. And we will just have a conversation,

like they all don't exist.+

Hello and welcome. I am Maria Ressa,

this is rappler talk. We are sitting now with davao mayor

Rody Duterte, thank you for joining us.

Thank you for your time.

Right now, part of the reason people want you to run for

president or vice president is because you are a strong leader.

I mean, what is this yearning in filipinos for a strong leader.

What do you think of this?

Well I would say that what you say in public,

you must do.

So never never say something in public

that you are reluctant to do,

or will not do it at all.

There is the gap that

really divides the country between the rich and the poor.

And the poor is getting poorer and the rich is getting richer.

They utter it every election, every candidate.

Why don't you just do it.

Shut up and just do it.

When I say I will stop criminality, I will stop criminality.

And if I have to kill you, I kill you. Personally.

Do not fuck with me, because I will.

I must admit I have killed.

Three months early on I killed…

Three people.

I told you to avoid me.

I am telling the Filipino people: It's gonna be bloody.

It's going to be difficult.

Do you think one man can make that much of a difference?

To turn the entire system upside down?

Yes. It's always… In every dictatorship…

It's gonna be a dictatorship. The police and the military

will be the backbone.

On june 30, 2016 a few hours after he took his oath of office,

the 16th president of the republic of the Phillipines

appeared at the Delpan Sports Complex along road 10 in Tondo, Manila.

To inform his new constituency that the war was uphand/upheld.

President Rodrigo Duterte was late,

held up by his first cabinet meeting.

When he arrived,

the pineapple silk shirt was gone,

traded for a striped polo shirt

and a navy jacket with the sleeves rolled up.

Delpan sits at the bottom of Tondo,

one of the capitals poorest areas.

Plastic tables covered with white table clothes were scattered

across the orange painted gym.

He said: I am asking you,

do not go into drugs because I will kill you.

I'm speaking in simple terms.

I will end the drug problem.

Our country, our children

are being destroyed by drugs.

I challenge you.

Stop using drugs or I will kill you.

And then the police killings began.

At 3 am of July 1,

hours after the president's speech

the earliest reported extrajudicial killing of the new regime

occured at Ibp road,

near the corner of road 10 and the Delpan Sports complex.

The killing held the rough elements of what would be a pattern of deads

across the rest of the country in the next 7 months.

The unidentified victim between 25 and 30 years old,

about 5'3 tall had been left with a sheet of cardboard

over his body, it read: I am a chinese druglord.

The directive to the police was:-

go to the communities where you have drug addicts,

drug users and kill them,

and they followed orders.

Every night,

they would be reports of,

I don't know, in certain areas maybe 3-5,

10 killings in just 1 night.

They would be… some of the victims were taken out of their houses

and shot brutally in front of their family members.

I mean, we are a civil race,

we are modern,

this is 21st century

and this shouldn't be happening,

but this was happening every night and reporters who were

hovering the police would have to go and

count the bodies and count the number of dead.

June. We give up something.

This is the one where Leny was…

They're a sidegroup,

that's why I wasn't so... so their an NGO...

so by January 2017 there was a number:

7000.

At least 7000 people killed

and then by what they started doing was

watering that down, cutting it up into parts,

so you don't know exactly how many people were killed.

I would say, that was really the last time you could trust some of the numbers,

cause you could see them evolving the strategy for the numbers.

The first is, split it up.

Here is the number of people killed in the drug war.

And then this number let's call it deads under investigations.

None of them are being investigated because they are presumed

presumed to be in the line of duty.

So no, we have definitely crossed the line.

We are here at the Manila Police district,

Police station 7 which handels Jose Abad Santos Avenue,

its 1:30 am and we are just beginning to set off.

I recognize these people

because of the cardboard signs.

Yes...

they are our victims.

My role is to shoot down the victim, then we leave immediately.

I believe this body is from our group.

There are many groups of contract killers.

I'm the leader of a group of seven to ten men.

When was the last time you killed someone?

Just last week.

I work for a wealthy businessman

who is also a policeman.

How much money do you get for a murder?

For a killing of a dealer or pusher, I get between 200 and 400 dollars.

And 100 dollars for a normal person.

Our boss gives us details and name

of the target person in an envelope.

Then we follow the target.

If possible,

we kill the person immediately on the same day.

I call in my wife when I need her so that the job can be done well.

My husband has been in this business for a while.

Once it was very difficult to get to a person.

So they decided to take a woman for the job.

I asked my husband if I could give it a try.

For us it's just a job. That's the lifestyle we live in.

This is how I got started.

How many have you killed?

I killed seven.

I started three years ago.

With some targets it is really difficult.

That's when women get involved. We pretend to be dancers.

We hang out in front of bars.

Then we have the chance to kill the target.

If there are too many people, we don't use a gun.

Then I use a knife.

So we did the stories, we pursued the stories. We spoke to

the families of victims,

and then Patricia Evangelista who is one of our

investigative reporters has also written about vigilantes,

those who have been hired by the police to do the killings.

And of course, that doesn't put the government in a very very good light

and I guess he wants to make us an example,

if you will not stop this critical reporting,

then we will stop you from publishing your stories,

we will stop your operations.

What's the question, Rappler?

Your article has arrived with

innuendous and pregnant with falsity.

We do not intervene in the affairs of

the armed forces.

We do not get any money, we are not interested in that.

But since you are a fake

news outlet,

I am not suprised that your articles are also fake.

First question Pia A. of Rappler.

We can debate now. Tell me where is our lies,

and I tell you where are yours.

So earlier in your speech you were saying that

the issue with ♪incomprehensible ♪ is not an issue on press freedom but...

I just landed and haven't enough sleep...

Sir, earlier in your speech you said that the issue on the second

ruling against Rappler is not an issue of press freedom,

but at the same time, during your speech

you were giving comments about the media and about Rappler.

That we are going too far. So what does that mean, Sir?

You say that this is not an attack on media but you also have attacks on media in your

own speech- Let me give you an example.

Your inquisitive mind

goes beyond its normal proportions.

You know, I just

show you a daily dose of your medicine.

Bongo intervenes

in a 15 billion… who gives you the idea he can intervene?

Where is his signature? Where is your statement?

And where is your even your point of reference?

Sir, first of all, you are digressing from the question.

Secondly, we also got Bongos side before publishing the story,

so...

What's the truth here?

I won the presidential election without any people of my own.

You're dead media people. You're my opponents. You're garbage.

You just gave me garbage.

You don't want to admit that you lost. I won, but you're still going on.

Sir you have already adressed the issue of fairness on that article,

can you just answer please the question? Don't use the microphone. I can't understand you.

I am now explaining even with your article.

Prove you're telling the truth. I'll give it to you.

And if you can find, I will ask Bongo to resign tomorrow.

Work on it tonight.

Let me know tomorrow and I will fire him.

If he did intervene. Even for one word.

The issue here is not press freedom.

What kind of a son of a bitch is that?

Technically the constitution does not really allow your company,

of which you are a worker of that company.

You are a Filipino, who was allowed

to abuse our country.

And you are an active participant of that

in the name of the holy grail of press freedom.

That's the truth.

Thank you Pia, next question.

You crossed a line with me as well.

You are not only throwing toilet paper, you are

throwing shit at us.

I say to enemies: I see you and I will slap you in the face.

If I don't shoot you, you son of a bitch.

Sir, is this a message also to

other news outlets in the phillippines that if you continue to be critical

of the-to other news

outlets that if we continue to be critical of the administration the

same thingwill also happen like what happened to Rappler?

Look,

why should you complain, if I am critical against media?

Are you not critical of me?

Yes?

Sir just one question, is that right?

I can't have that. I'll treat you like pigs, motherfuckers.

…now if a media entity is very critical of you,

you can and you will...

I can drag you into the mud, you sons of bitches.

Even Rappler.

I don't cover anything.

You can dig

the entire cemetery of lies and not find anything.

Thank you Mr. President, thank you.

The government has succeeded in scarying business.

They did this with the largest television network,

they did this with the largest newspaper,

they threatened the business people who run these groups

and they get what they want in general.

The coverage is-there is a chilling effect.

In Rappler, when they tried to do that,

the journalists stepped up and then they did other things.

It began in January, the very first case that was filed against us,

they wanted to revoke our license

and without that license, without that permit

we wouldn't be able to operate, so that came in January.

And then, there were succession of cases:

there were accusations that we were american-owned,

that we were violating the anti-d♪incomprehensible♪ law.

And then there was a cyber libel case that

came eventually,

another libel case that also involved our

reporter and the IR tax evasion cases.

So shut up, follow the line, stop being critical of government.

That's the message.

This is politically motivated.

It is intended to harass us, it is intended to

tone down our reporting, but what they keep forgetting

is that every time they do this, we become

more resolute and we realize they are hiding something.

What are they hiding?

Why are they afraid of journalists?

New York

Thank you time for helping us shine the light,

that's truly important and including us

in this room full of people, sometimes in the global south we're not included,

well it's ironic that even though our two nations are

almost exactly across the world from eachother,

our leaders have the same style,

their macho-populist styles,

sexist at best, misogynistic at worst.

Our leaders, these leaders use anger and fear

to divide and to conquer.

They create and they live a politics of hate.

We have to answer some crucial questions.

Who are we? What do you stand for?

What are the values, this word came up a lot today,

what are the values that give meaning?

What is the line that you will never cross?

Because on this side you're good

and on this side you're evil.

I think, the time 100, you in this room,

please let's toast to freedom.

ON HER RETURN, MARIA RESSA IS ARRESTED ON MARCH 29TH 2019

There she is, there is Maria.

She is being escorted by 3 policemen.

Well I would like to post bail.

Where do you like me?

Know I have lawyers.

Okay wow, thank you guys.

It's a nice welcome home I suppose.

And it's sad that this is the kind of welcome

our country gives a journalist.

So, what have we done? I posted bail,

the 7th time. What can I say?

I am gonna laugh, cause I think that is all you can do now.

Every action takes us further into a descent to tyranny.

This is the weaponization of the law.

You are seeing it in action, please report.

I can take questions.

Of course if Maria is arrested we would all be devastated.

It would have a very strong effect on our moral,

on everyone's moral,

not just the senior editors,

but I am sure even the reporters.

But as I said a while ago,

I think we have it in our minds,

we play it in our minds-that scenario.

We always say that,

you know, we will continue operating

and

if in the event it becomes difficult because of

finances,

because in the end that's what it will boil down to.

We have to have money, we have to have the funds to be able to pay

our reporters and our staff and

finance operations and stories.

So in the end, that's what's gonna kill us-

the lack of funds, the lack of money.

This is the time when I need a hug. And I gotta thank Paterno for coming.

Hug the person next to you.

Oh, group hug!

You need a hug. It's been a tough week guys!

Did you hug eachother?

So one of the things that your managers have done yesterday was to kind

of assess our response to what happened

and to try to figure out what the next steps could be.

And all of that wheel cascade to you,

but oh my gosh, how can we forget,

the reporters on the B,

you know, you guys do this everyday,

give them a hand.

Q&A, any questions? Concerns?

In filipino♪.

The tax cases are criminal charges.

Is there a possibility that the BIR will now start

a civil

simultaneous with the criminal trial?

My thinking is that they were after things that would

scare us,

because it worked for others.

Can they file a civil? They can file a lot of cases.

They can make up. They made up these cases,

so for me,

there is not much that they can do now that would

be worse than this.

We are fighting it, our lawyers are prepared,

we're prepared for the long hall,

we also have the committee to protect journalists.

You know I hope other journalists also do the story because it's a

very interesting intersection of power.

Hey we move on to nicer things,

other questions? Concerns?

Paterno!

Oh, Paterno.

Just an update on our favorite question about job security.

Since the last time we had this GA,

what are the developments and how viable is Rappler as a business

and what assurances can you give us

in terms of our job security the next few years. Very good.

Excellent question.

What 2018 proved to us,

is that the mission

is good for business.

2018, despite the fact that we were under attack,

we essentially made almost as much as 2017,

we were the only news group that didn't lay off people.

And part of that is also because of your commitment.

Is it scary to be part of Rappler? I hope not.

But you know,

we have our plans in case worst case scenarios happen.

Will you know-this has all been cascated to you what we were doing.

So if you see anything suspicious,

if you feel like you're being followed,

you pick up the phone and call.

And we will try to identify specifically

if there is any new threat.

As it stands right now, it's intimidation.

Don't be intimidated. I think you all now, it pisses me off

when people say stupid things,

when they're government officials.

A spot report prepared by the NPD homicide section,

mark the case a shooting incident.

The account filled by police investigators listed the collected evidence.

They included a Smith and Wesson.38 caliber snubnose revolver

without a serial number;

a twenty peso bill and 5 plastic sachets of what appeared

to be Methamphetamine Hydrochloride,

street name Shabu, or crystal meth.

Can we turn off the TV so we can understand each other better?

I turn it off, right?

Let's talk about how it happened.

- It was 9 p.m.. The door blew open. - This one?

Yes. Two uniformed police officers dressed in blue polo shirts...

One wore a vest, the other not. They wore two long guns.

Long rifles?

I'm not sure. He said: "Don't move!"

My husbald who was asleep woke up as the door opened.

Still sleepy, he straightened up.

There was the mattress, so the air from the fan could reach us.

Otherwise the fan would not get us.

My husband sat up. He put his hands up.

He took his hands up?

Yes, he surrendered. No matter what.

I started to cry and asked what the problem was.

He grabbed my husband. My husband did not fight back.

Then he took me outside.

I was outside, when I heard...

That there was a bang inside.

I wanted to go in. I fell. The police stopped me from going back in.

He said: "Keep her out, keep her out!"

I was pulled back. I fought. I begged: "Sir, have mercy with us!"

"My husband did nothing wrong. Please have some sympathy for us."

"Don't you have a family too?"

A policeman screamed that my husband was fighting.

But I knew it was a lie.

I heard shots and called for help.

Then I heard shots at the neighbors.

Rifle shots?

Yes. Maybe four or five.

That was over there.

At a quarter to ten I knew they were dead.

I ran back and forth but they blocked my way.

I kept screaming.

Then the one with the birthmark came to me.

He hit me.

He said: "You whore, stop it, or do you want to die, too?"

I forgot to ask: Did they have a search warrant?

No, they didn't show anything.

- Did they have any documents? - No, nothing at all.

The door just blew open

and they shouted that we shouldn't move.

Then they dragged me outside.

Can you recognize their faces? Do you know their names?

I don't know their names, but I knwo their faces.

We've discussed that the faces have to be assigned to names.

You can file two reports with the court.

But we still have to collect evidence.

I want them to go to court.

They rushed in here like devils and killed my husband.

The people of the villages know the killer by name.

The neighbours are certain the killer was a cop.

Every witness to certain,

the killer was a cop.

There is no doubt on that one point.

The cops also say, the killer was a cop.

President Rodrigo Duterte said: "if someone's child is an addict,

be the one to kill them, so it won't be so painful to their parents.

Do it first, he said, because that person will die either way.

If anything happens to them, they wanted it.

They wanted it...

IN DUTERTE'S DRUG WAR ABOUT 25,000 TO 30,000 PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED WITHOUT TRIAL UNTIL 2019

Well the primary aim of mister Duterte is

to control society.

To keep them under an environment of fear.

That they won't oppose or question his actions.

That's one. Then the next objective

is to deflect suspicion.

If he is openly,

vocally, against

illegal drugs and in fact, killing people because of it,

then people will not suspect his involvement

in illegal drugs.

When Duterte was still mayor of Davao City,

that's the known ♪incomprehensible ♪ shipment point of illegal drugs.

The port of Davao.

But when he became president, they started bringing

the illegal drugs,

through the main door, the front door.

Which is, the port of Manila.

Plus, there are 2 big shipments, worth billions of pesos,

that came in and was investigated even

here in the senade,

and in one of the deliveries,

in one of the shipments,

I was able to link the son of Mr. Duterte,

to the major players involved in the

smuggling of illegal drugs.

In the same hearing we conducted

about that illegal shipment,

I openly made the allegation

that Paolo Duterte, the son of the president,

is a member of the chinese triade.

He has a triade tattoo on his back.

I say Mr. Paolo Duterte has a tattoo of the Triads.

He admits that he has a tattoo.

I'm being asked for evidence.

The tattoo will prove that you are a member of the Triads

because it has sacred digits.

If Mr. Vice Mayor Duterte will agree,

we will take a picture of the tattoo

and send it to the US DEA so it can be decrypted.

Are you willing Vice Mayor Duterte?

No way.

Mr Chairman, can...

I'm sorry, no way.

So, is there a tattoo? Is that so?

We can ask security to accompany you,

to just take a picture of your back.

We will send the photo to the US DEA to have it decoded.

Are you ready?

Are you willing?

Are you willing to do that?

No, Mr.

Why not?

If you have nothing to hide and it's just a tattoo done somewhere...

you should not be afraid.

We can't uncover nothing in that case, Mr Vice Mayor.

Vice Mayor.

I already answered the question.

Early on,

we received the information

that Duterte wanted to have me killed. In fact,

the witness that we presented here in the senade,

who used to be a member of the Davao death squad,

said and testified that he

received an order from the

Operations Officer of the Davao Death Squad,

that Duterte wanted to have me killed.

But then he passed on it because he felt that

the job was too big for their

hitsquad,

so there is that. Then eventually, during

the course of the first 6 month of this term,

one of the police generals who were in attendance

in a meeting of Mr. Duterte,

hear Duterte said that:

"Why can't you just have Trillanes killed?"

Our last question. You have big curtains.

So, what is behind the curtains?

Well, my security officer

recommended that we place a bullet proof mechanism

on the window to prevent any

assesination attempts

through this very vulnerable part of the building.

And I can show you.

So this one is a bullet proof plate.

Because the other side of that, there is a walkway

and it has access to a vacant lot.

Now this curtain

is actually an anti-shrapnel curtain.

So if there is an RPG that's used there,

it can absorve the sharps from the

glass or any shrapnel.

So this is the purpose of the heavy curtain.

ON JUNE 52019 THE VILLAGE COUNCILOR NESTOR CALLANGA AND HIS FAMILY

WERE KILLED BY A DEATH SQUAD.

He seems an ordinary man.

There is no mention of his proffession.

He appears to be Delpan secret. The man in the white shirt,

with a thick gold necklace,

who wanders down alleyways,

allegedly slamming plastic tubs into people's heads.

The people of Parola in Isla Puting Bato believe they know

a killer's name.

The people of Isla Puting Bato call him a murderer.

Along Parola he is called that son of a bitch killer.

The people along Road 10 call him a demon.

It's a Remington, 45 caliber.

Is that your favorite gun?

Yes.

I like it

because it'll get the job done faster.

It only takes one shoot to kill someone.

Not much effort.

Did you murder people with it?

Oh yeah. People were killed with it.

And here I have an extra magazine.

How many people did you kill?

What?

How many have you murdered?

I've killed a lot. If I count them all.

I don't know exactly how many.

I kill the people but I refuse to count them.

It doesn't feel good.

For me it is natural to kill people.

When Duterte became mayor of the city,

Davao became peaceful.

His values and principles were definitely for the people.

So peace and order came to our city.

The people had to be disciplined. That's what the military and we did.

This is how peace came. Which is still the case today.

Davao is still peaceful today thanks to the mayor,

who is our new president.

Did it happen that the president asked you to kill a person?

Yeah, definitely.

How did that happen?

You mean when he wanted to get rid of someone?

We got a call and helped him right away. We killed the person.

Duterte didn't speak to us directly.

Duterte had a middleman for that.

When this guy came to us

he told us what job to do.

Who had to be killed.

I kill for the peace of the nation.

I will gladly do it over and over again.

IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS DUTERTE'S PARTY IS CONFIRMED WITH AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY.

THE OPPOSITION LOSES ALL HIS SEATS IN THE PHILIPPINE SENATE.

Can you hear me now, can you hear me?

Are you going to the dinner with the tech team tonight?

Okay. Have fun! Who else is going?

I feel left out?

I am doing the testimony,

which I have to finish.

I am too tired, I have been up since 4:30.

I don't think I'll make it.

Alright. Ok. Thanks, goodbye.

This is an 11 nation grant committee and it's

on data privacy and democracy.

And being able to testify in front of them,

that we're in a strangely unique position that I wish wasn't so.

What we have is, not just data but horrendous experience

of actually living through this.

We're a cautionary tale for the west.

The Philippines is an example of how democracy...

of how quickly democracy is eroded, how information...

Ok Miss Ressa.

In a few minutes, we have the parliament of Singapore with us,

the houses of ♪incomprehensible♪ are here,

the parliament of the federal republic of Germany is with us,

the chamber of debuties of the republic of Chile is with us,

the parliament of the republic of Estonia.

♪ Incomprehensible ♪

Technology gets its power through control of data.

Data is not the new oil, its the new plutoniun.

Amazingly powerful,

dangerous when it spreads,

difficult to clean up. We canadians,

are currently in a historic battle with the future of democracy.

♪ Incomprehensible♪ I am here to tell you

that we will win that battle, thank you.

Thank you Mr. ♪incomprehensible♪.

And from Manila in the Phillippines Maria Ressa,

the chief executive officer and executive director of Rappler co.

Good evening from Manila.

The Phillippines, we here are a cautionary tale for you.

An example of how quickly democracy crumbles,

is eroded from within and how these

information operations can take over

the entire ecosystem and transform lies into facts.

If you can make people believe lies are facts

then you can control them. Without facts, you don't have truth,

without truth you don't have trust.

Journalists have long been the gatekeepers for facts,

when we come under attack democracy is under attack.

When this situation happens, the voice with the loudest megaphone wins.

In the Phillippines, the weaponization of social media began in July 2016,

after president Duterte won not coincidentally,

when our brutal drug war began.

In a global study, with 12 other research groups we help define

patriotic trolling. Here is how it happened.

And let me show you, please in this one, can you zoom in?

And again, I'll make sure you already have a copy of this. Let's see if he can zoom in.

This is a database that

we actually began to put together as a defense,

since we lived on social media

we were able to identify the attacks early on, we found

a ♪incomprehensible♪ network of 26 fake accounts,

as journalists we then did do deletions to make sure it was fake.

And then we went and counted manually

how many accounts could it impact from 26 fake accounts,

they could impact as many as three million.

You can basically see the same thing that happened in the west,

which is a fracture line of society, you can see this here,

and then after the drug war began,

it was pounded a million times,

and it becomes fact. It becomes a solid line.

The biggest accelerate

to this movement towards an ♪ incomprehensible♪ for authoritarian rulers,

is technology.

But then what happened in 2016

was that the technology, social media,

was gained and overtaken

by autocratic leaders,

by digital companies, like cambridge analytica,

facebook, and its wanting to gain more and more;

people wanting to accelerate its growth.

And part of the reason I think we live in such an upside down world,

in many different countries,

many different democracies around the world, is precisely because

of that tactic.

Mrs Ressa you have for your testimony 12 minutes, so I

want to let questions.

Sure. So I guess just to end with this is, that

I don't know unless you've been the subject of an attack.

It's very difficult to go through

90 hate messages per hour

sustained over days and months.

That is what we are going through, the kind of astroturfing that turns lies

into truth, for us this is a matter of survival.

And my appologies for cutting you off,

your testimony is powerful and we have watched your story from afar so,

thank you again.

Mrs Ressa, thank you we will disconnected now.

Thank so much!

Thank you, have a good day. You too!

There's a lot of people who are afraid to speak

here in my country.

There is a lot of people who are afraid to speak. But through my blog

they feel that I was able to give them voice.

It all began when I wrote an open letter to president Duterte,

that was just after the elections when these killings,

10 killings every night, 25 killings and I was like,

this is not what you have promised and it was shared 39 thousand times.

Then I started receiving hate messages, death threats.

And they would send me pictures of guns.

Like "I'm gonna use this to you.

Or...

I'm gonna throw acid in your face if I see you in the streets."

Different kind of threats.

And then the latest one is the one that

they put me in a coffin and said

"time of dead 8 o clock...

an them internment is tomorrow

and then it's up to you". And then they put my face in a coffin.

I have been transferring from one adress to another

because there is one time in our house... we have a small

apartment in Makati.

A guy pretending to be a cable guy

went and talked to my mom,

she is a cancer survivor and she thought that she could just

talk with that guy and then the guy is asking a lot of information:

at what time I am gonna be home;

when is my scedule going to the office;

and how many are in our house…

So I asked the smart communication,

if they sent someone to our house

and then they said they did not send anybody.

That's the fear comes in,

so an employee from the commision of human rights

told me that I need to transfer,

because for them, they call that profiling

before execution.

Right then I had to transfer

to another place

with my mom.

There is a fear

when I found out that it would come to this,

where your life will be threatened, actually for me,

I am scared yes but I can manage,

but what I cannot manage is that

my family will be included.

Stop shaming the Philippines! Stop shaming the Philippines!

We are here now at the Rappler head quarters,

I am with Mark Lopez

and we are here to see miss Maria Ressa

and give her a piece of our mind.

Alright.

Alright.

Yes, we have a message for miss Maria Ressa.

You're from?

We are independent writers.

Do you have an appointment?

No we don't, but we would like to see her if she is here.

Are you taking a video of us?

Are you taking a video of our office?

Yes we are.

It was on wendnesday or thursday? I don't remember it anymore.

But we just had a meeting.

This was...

We had an interview in February

and we were talking and suddenly there were noises in the background,

me personally I wasn't really realizing,

I thought some students are visiting Rappler.

But it came out that it was something totally different.

What happened in our interview?

If you remember, we were in that small conference room.

And all out of a sudden there was noise outside.

And it also drew my attention

and apparently there was one of the

Duterte supporters his name is Mark Lopez,

he was able to get through, to get past security

and enter

the third floor,

going through the mall area

and he was just outside our door,

when we were doing the interview and the

security guard at that time tried to stop him,

because he was trying to film something,

he was trying to go on facebook live

and he was calling for people,

Duterte supporters to come to the rappler office

and of course

that was a breach of security.

No one is supposed to be able to get close to our office without

clearance from us,

and that was very alarming for us.

Hi guys so we are now here at Rappler office.

Below in the picture

you can see the tweet of Maria Ressa.

We can't and won't accept that.

This is a slap in the face for us, for all of us.

Because she only sees us as trolls.

As people who execute orders from somebody else.

So we are here to express our outrage.

- And fight for our country. - Yes!

They are destroying our country

and we're not goint to sit here and let them do it.

This is what we're goint to say...

to Miss Ressa and to the people around her.

They won't let us in.

You work here in front of the Rappler's office?

You know what Maria Ressa did, what she did to our country, right?

She has embarrassed us to other countries.

This is my message, stop destroying our country

Maria and Rappler, you have no business doing this,

this is not your mandate as a journalist

to destroy our country

and I think you should just close up.

Sir, may I ask you to go downstairs?

Please go down. You are in the private area.

Facebook took this down within like a day. But still,

this is psychological warfare.

And so what I have done, is I have increased security yet again.

So I still struggle with this,

but I know that the first line of defense

is to know what's real and what's not,

in a situation where it's impossible

to know when these threats get to a point that they jump into

the real world,

it's your judgement call.

So I always tell our guys,

it's just nothing to fear but fear itself.

The first thing is to like, in your head just quantify

what are the risks, what's the worst case scenario

and how do I keep going down the path I wanna go on,

being pragmatic about the risks,

protecting myself against the risks, and yet at the same time,

going down the path. You cannot be your own worst enemy.

The day that it happened, the day that they came,

we had the managers meeting

and then all of a sudden I was on my desk

and I saw Glenda

talking to a man who

looked unfamiliar

and then all of a sudden they were so many of them

and we didn't know who they were.

NBI:

What's your name? I want to see your ID. We need your name.

What's it about? Sir?

We asked for the name. Is he from here?

So we started messaging eachother,

who is this, what's going on? Who are these people?

And then we figured out that they were from the

NBI and we said,

you know this was not supposed to happen.

And it was just too late.

Maria was inside, she had another meeting and

Glenda was getting in touch with the lawyersand

I too had to talk to some of the agents

and I was also trying to get in touch with the lawyer.

And I told the agent: can you just please wait,

there is a lawyer on his way,

just wait for the lawyer and don't call Maria off to the NBI.

It was very late in the afternoon and we knew that you know,

5 o clock the courts are closed,

there are no judges who we could talk to,

so when the lawyer came he spoke to

the agents and then the agents

explained we would have to bring Maria to the National Bureau of Investigation

headquarters in Manila,

but then we said but she has to post bail.

When we looked at the arrest warrant,

there was no indication of how much bail was supposed to be payed.

Normally there is an arrest warrant and you are entitled to bail,

then the amount should be specified. So we didn't even know

how much Maria was supposed to pay.

You can deduce from there that clearly the plan

was for Maria to be arrested.

The plan was for Maria to spend the night in jail.

For many years Maria Ressa ran CNN's coverage in Manila Phillippines,

but this week, she spent the night in jail.

The result of a cyber libel charge for an old article on her website.

My stay last night at the NBI

really made me think about what this is all about.

For me it's about two things:

abuse of power

and weaponization of the law.

This isnt just about me and its not just about Rappler.

The message that the government is sending is very clear and

someone actuallytold our reporters this last night:

be silent our you're next.

So I am saying and I am appealing to you

not to be silent even if,

and especially if you're next

you have to express outrage like I am doing now.

This is not-press freedom is not just about journalists,

it's not just about us. Its not just about me,

it's not just about Rappler. Press freedom is the foundation of

every single right of every Filipino to the truth.

So that we can hold the power full to account.

What we are seeing is deaths by a thousand cuts of our democracy

and I appeal to you

to join me-I've said this.

I have been thinking about this for a long time.

I always said that when I look back a decade from now,

I wanna make sure

that I have done all I can,

we will not duck, we will not hide,

we will hold the line.

You say that there is so much more here,

it's not just about you, not just about rappler, but democracy.

Do you believe Duterte is out to silence you,

despite the fact that you are a time person of the year,

the whole world is watching.

You know I try not to take anything personally,

nor to give any kinds of...

and I am extremely sad about what is happening

in our country, I have been a reporter for more than 30 years,

I have covered all the administrations since Marcos,

I've covered dictatorships

and I have seen more transparency

and sticking to the established standards of the law

than here.

When I was released on bail thursday,

everyone was there and I talked about the lesson that this only

really drilled into my head which is, this is about abuse of power

and it is, they moved beyond weaponization of social media

to weaponization of the law.

We are being sandwhiched in between.

Top down from the president himself and

legal attacks and then bottom up from social media.

And then here we are trying to survive, trying to pull back,

trying to pull it out.

I think what we need to do is

to try to get Filipinos to find a ray of hope.

It goes to courage and hope. Courage to speak up,

and courage to hope that it will get better.

Maria is the soul of Rappler.

She started it. This is her baby.

We are part of the supporting cast.

We are the pillars,

but she created the foundation, she built the foundation.

I think if you take her out,

we will still continue to function

because we have a mission.

The objective is clear, government will want to shut us down.

Government would want to silence us.

But if they take away Maria, if they arrest Maria,

I think it will be-we owe it to Maria,

to continue with our operations, no matter what.

We are prepared, we have plans, we have contingencies.

They shut down this wonderful office, we will go elsewhere,

and good luck to the government if they continue hunting us down,

they will have to arrest each and everyone of us, to stop us.

Do not translate the we will continue to hold the line, just thank you for your support…

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3

Thank you for your support.

We will continue to hold the line.

We are leaders of Hold the line.