MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will not interfere in the cases filed against Rappler and its CEO, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa, he said on Saturday.

Marcos made the comment when asked about his thoughts on the journalist, and whether or not her strong stance on issues might be among the reasons for some of the cases filed against her and the 10-year-old news firm.

"Well… Really what have happened with Maria Ressa and Rappler is that it was determined that it is a foreign enterprise. And that’s not allowed in our rules, in our law," said the Philippine leader during an event at the Asia Society in New York.

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"And what her situation right now is that it has nothing to do with her political leanings. What has happened is that an individual has filed cyber libel cases against her and that’s what she is facing now. So that is the situation with Maria Ressa."

Ressa has been a vocal critic of Marcos' predecessor, former President Rodrigo Duterte, and the deadly drug war he launched in 2016, triggering what media advocates have said is a series of criminal charges, probes and online attacks against her and Rappler.

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Rappler has been accused of tax evasion and cyberlibel. Ressa and her company are fighting at least seven court cases as of June 28 this year, information showed from the news outfit showed.

But Marcos said interfering in the cases would be inappropriate.

"You know we have a very clear delineation of powers in our political system, very much styled after the American system where we have the executive, the judiciary, and the legislature. And they are co-equal," he said.

"It is highly improper for the executive to interfere in either the legislature or the judiciary.

"Rappler actually continues to operate. You can look them up on the Internet. They make their comments and make their posts and they continue to operate in that way," he added.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in late June ordered Rappler to shut down, citing its earlier decision

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The SEC cited its earlier decision that questioned Rappler's Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs).

PDRs allow foreign entities to invest but not control companies in the country. The SEC said Rappler's depositary receipts have questionable provisions.

The case springs from the 2015 investment from the US-based Omidyar Network, which was established by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.

Omidyar later transferred its investment in Rappler to the site's local managers to stave off efforts by President Rodrigo Duterte to shut it down.

Ressa and Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October last year for their efforts to "safeguard freedom of expression". — With a report by Mike Navallo, ABS-CBN News