MANILA, Philippines (The Adobo Chronicles, Manila Bureau) –  There’s bad news and there’s good news.

The bad news: The Department of Justice has indicted Rappler, Maria Ressa and several others for tax evasion.

The good news: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has cleared Rappler from charges of violating the Philippine Constitution that prohibits foreign ownership of media companies.

The new SEC order means that Rappler and its parent company Rappler Holdings Corporation can continue to do business with or without foreign investment.

A spokesperson for SEC told The Adobo Chronicles that after careful review of the documents provided by Rappler, as well as tons of its previously published stories, SEC concluded that the online news source is actually not a media company and as such is not coverecd by the Constitutional requirement of 100% Filipino ownership.

“It has become quite clear that the “news stories” published by Rappler over the years are actually personal opinions of Ressa and her corps of Rapplerettes,” the spokesperson said.  Just like personal blogs, published opinions such as those of Rappler’s are not covered by media ownership regulations.”

Champagne flowed at Rappler’s headquarters soon after the SEC news broke.

As for the tax evasion indictment of Rappler? Well that’s a different opinion, uhm, we mean news story.