Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Martin Andanar described as “baseless and absurd” the opinion piece of online news Rappler chief Maria Ressa which was published by the Los Angeles Times.
In a statement, Andanar disputed Ressa’s number of deaths under President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs which she claimed has reached to 27,000 since the drive started in 2016.
“Ressa’s claim that there were 27,000 drug-related killings in the Philippines was baseless. There were only about 5,000 deaths based on reports from Philippine law enforcement agencies,” Andanar said.
“Again, Ms. Ressa continues to cite the baseless number of 27,000 drug addicts that were allegedly killed, which is actually the total homicide cases including cases not related to the drug war,” he said.
In her article, titled “Americans, look to the Philippines to see a dystopian future created by social media,” Ressa, who is facing tax evasion and securities fraud charges, claimed that online media “struggled to hold the Philippine government to account and end impunity” for its bloody war against illegal drugs.
Ressa also alleged that online media are targets of harrasment for crticizing the government’s drug war.
However, Andanar said Ressa’s allegations were ridiculous as defended Duterte, saying that the President himself signed RA 11458 which protects broadcast and online media from revealing confidential sources.
“Ms. Ressa should stick to the hard facts that came from our law enforcement agencies,” he said.