It's no secret I've criticized Rappler so many times in the past, calling them out on my FB posts on what I felt were lapses on their editorial judgement and processes -- their treatment of certain stories which I believed were unfair or misleading. But then again, I've also done so for many other media entities, including the Philippine Daily Inquirer of which I am an alumnus and whose leaders past and present I hold in high regard.

Tomorrow's result on the Cyber Libel case against Rappler and its CEO Maria Ressa will have a chilling effect on our democratic way of life not because charges of libel will beat journalists into submission. Libel law has always been a part of having a free press and should rightly be a balancing force in the exercise of responsible journalism.

The case to be decided for against Rappler has nothing to do with any alleged libelous act.

What is disturbing in this particular libel case is how this administration is using its power to twist what is fair and legal for its nefarious ends. The crux of the matter is that Ressa and Rappler have been charged and tried for an alleged libelous story retroactively -- the Cyber Libel law was not yet a law when the story came out. And when the charges were filed the prescriptive period had already lapsed.

This, in addition to the fact that the president and his minions have publicly displayed his extreme hatred for Rappler and Ressa in so many occasions makes the Cyber Libel case suspect. Likewise the string of tax and business cases against Rappler and Ressa joining the confluence of events has a stench that cannot be ignored.

And this stench spreads far and wide. Take the action against the Inquirer and its owners the Prietos and ABS-CBN with the Lopezes.

What is going on can hardly be called legal acrobatics, for the actions are not couched in law but the twisting and bastardization of what we all hold sacred and dear in a just society -- the true rule of law.

At least Ferdinand Marcos, in his two decades as a dictator, tried to cover his acts against the people under a legal cloak with a constitution and presidential decrees that would fit his deeds.

But not this administration and its political and judicial allies.

We just pray that this judge in Rappler's Cyber Libel case sees it for what it is. Moreover, we pray, whichever way it goes, it serves the cause of the Filipino people whose futures are being trampled on.

UPDATE: Rappler's Maria Ressa and Rey Santos were found guilty of Cyber Libel