Rappler continues to operate as a legal media organization

Claim: Rappler is now delisted as a legal and legitimate company.

Former broadcaster Jay Sonza made this claim in a Facebook post on August 12, 2022.

Rating: FALSE

The bottom line: On July 29, a day after the Securities and Exchange Commission issued its order of revocation against Rappler Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation, Rappler lawyer and chief legal counsel Francis Lim said that the shutdown order from the SEC could be appealed with the courts once more and that “it’s not final.”

Lim also said they had tried to “prepare for all scenarios, including the worst case scenario.”

Rappler also said in a statement it issued on the same day: “We have existing legal remedies all the way up to the highest court of the land. It is business as usual for us since, in our view, this is not immediately executory without court approval.“

Highly irregular: On December 22, 2016, then-solicitor general Jose Calida wrote a letter to the SEC, seeking an investigation into Rappler’s Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs), a legal financial instrument also issued by other media organizations but which SEC had not questioned. Rappler did not get a copy of the said letter. 

On July 8, 2017, a “special panel” was created by the SEC to direct a “formal, in-depth examination” into Rappler Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation, but Rappler was not informed about any of the panel’s findings.

• Timeline, FAQs, and more about Rappler’s SEC case can be found here.

Rappler’s stand: In a virtual press conference last July 29, Rappler CEO Maria Ressa said their goal was to “continue holding the line” and that they would “not voluntarily” give up their rights. – Erick Prynze Sazon/Rappler.com

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