I AM not quite sure how it is put in the scriptures, but what lawyer Wilfredo Keng did to Rappler's founder and chief executive officer Maria Ressa is one for the books. I could only call to mind a classic Filipino adage which goes: "'Pag binato ka ng bato, batuhin mo ng tinapay" (If you're hit with a stone, hit back with bread). Actually that's one way of paraphrasing the golden rule: "Do unto to others as you would others do unto you."
Readers will recall that lawyer-businessman Keng broke into the news when he filed libel suits against Ressa for allegedly vilifying his reputation. The suits emanated from remarks made by Ressa on social media, which Keng alleged as identifying him as involved in criminal activities. Ressa made big mountains out of the cases, ventilating them not only in the local press but in international media as well as attempts by the Duterte government to silence its critics. The Ressa media hype would place businessman Keng as an instrumentality of the Duterte administration and would depict the libel cases as attacks against press freedom.
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