“Ressa is taking the same route as De Lima by tapping celebrity lawyers and publicists in a determined effort to pin Rody for her travails.

New York Times (NYT) came up with a melodramatic feature on Rappler and its founder Maria Ressa, which contained the usual narrative of persecution where there was none and journalists being targeted by the administration of President Rody Duterte.

The NYT report, however, included the old allegations raised during the 2016 and 2019 campaigns about a well-organized social media army that Rody maintains to keep his favorable image to the public while fending off critics.

Rappler, which is one of three local fact-checkers tapped by Facebook, had held that Rody had successfully manipulated public opinion through the use of online agents that use subterfuge including the creation of fake accounts.

NYT claimed Rappler reporters identified 26 interlocking Facebook accounts with phony identities, “a so-called sock-puppet network.”

It quoted Ressa as saying that the online campaign “influenced some three million people.”

Fake Facebook accounts “were just a fraction” of what Ressa claimed as the “patriotic trolling” universe.

She even identified three influential social media figures as being in the forefront of the manipulation of views or who are termed as influencers — Margaux “Mocha” Uson, Sass Rogando Sasot, “a transgender activist” and R.J. Nieto, or “Thinking Pinoy,” a “self-styled voice of the middle class.”

Ressa then cited the phenomena of astroturfing or the “artificial creation of a seemingly grassroots social media buzz.”

Astroturfing, Ressa claims, was instrumental in “gaining popular support for Duterte’s prosecution of Leila de Lima, a human rights activist turned senator who criticized the extrajudicial killings.”

Ressa’s analysis then went into the supposed systematic campaign to take down the senator.

“There were three steps used against De Lima, attacking her credibility, violently denigrating her as a sexual object and spreading viral hashtags,” Ressa said.

Ressa then claimed that the hashtag #ArrestLeiladeLima trended on social media for weeks before the arrest of De Lima in February 2017 on drug-related conspiracy charges.

Since then, De Lima has been using the yellow foreign network against Rody to seek her release on the pretext of political persecution.

Ressa is taking the same route as De Lima by tapping celebrity lawyers and publicists in a determined effort to pin Rody for her travails involving court cases that neither Rody nor his administration are responsible for.

The controversial head of the online outfit is facing cyber libel and anti-dummy law complaints.

The NYT article noted that Ressa “had been talking to her lawyers about protections that might be afforded to her under international law in the event she is imprisoned.”

It indicated that on 23 July, Ressa’s criminal trial for cyber libel began and soon after that, she was back in court to face the tax-evasion and “anti-dummy” charges.

Recently she tapped a high-profile international legal team, including human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, to represent her, which would be an extremely expensive endeavor, which is made to look as a voluntary effort from the celebrity lawyer.

Also, the NYT stated that throughout the past few months, Ressa was spending up to four days a week in front of judges at four different trials around Metro Manila.

Ressa’s reference to the online campaign against her and in support of Rody was exaggerated to the point of fiction since a still huge number of Filipinos, including Rody, are not inclined to spend a huge part of their time daily to monitor the latest buzz on the Internet.

Many Filipinos though have been empowered by technology and through social media, they are able to express their true thoughts and feelings.

Social media indeed has immense power, but the 80 percent or more survey ratings of the President can’t be attributed to mere “manipulation.”

The hypocritical view of the yellow mob and Ressa is that Rody’s popularity is merely made up since he does not conform with their structured standards.

The pretense of Rody’s foes is the basic reason why Filipinos had rejected them.