Philippines President Duterte wishes journalist Maria Ressa on Nobel Prize

October 12, 2021: On Monday, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s office congratulated journalist Maria Ressa for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, which calls it “a victory for a Filipina,” for which it was happy to see.

Ressa, founder of Philippine news site Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov shared the 2021 prize following braving the wrath of the leaders of the Philippines and Russia, exposing corruption and misrule.

Ressa has been dealing with multiple legal challenges in courts related to Rappler’s dogged that search the reporting of Duterte’s government, its bloody war on drugs, and its social media usage to target opponents.

“It is a victory for a Filipina, and we are happy for that,” presidential spokesperson Harry Roque told a regular news conference, as a response to a question on what the award meant for the government. “Of course, there are indeed individuals feeling Maria Ressa still has to wipe her name before the courts,” he said in the first comment on the award from Duterte’s camp on Friday.

The firebrand leader describing Rappler, launched in 2012, as a “fake news outlet” and a tool of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, that Ressa has gone as nonsense.

The Prize is hailing by many in the Philippines, saying it is a rebuke on Duterte, a frequent critic of Rappler.

It was the first Nobel Peace Prize for the Philippines and the first for journalists since the German Carl von Ossietzky won it in the year 1935. The Kremlin well-wished Muratov on Friday, describing the investigative journalist as talented and brave.

On Monday, she replied to the questions asked that the message would be to Duterte; Ressa has been urging him not to pursue a divide and conquer approach.

“I beg you, unite this nation. Don’t tear us apart,” she said in an interview with news channel ANC.