By Marivir Montebon
New York - Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa was recently at the La Mama Experimental Theatre as part of a national tour for her new book called ‘The Fight Back’ (Harper Collins Publishers, 2026).
The audience was quaint; about fifty Filipino Americans came to directly learn from her clarity and courage as a fighter for truth, organized by The Outstanding Filipino Awards (TOFA) and hosted by Philippine talk show host Dr. Boy Abunda.
Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa with Dr. Boy Abunda at La Mama Experimental Theatre: We have to hold big tech to account. (Photo by Monette Rivera)
Ressa, at the TOFA Masterclass and book signing on October 27, 2026, said she wanted to finish the book just before the US midterm elections, which she deemed was very crucial for protecting our freedoms.
That was a foreboding.
‘The Fight Back’ is what Ressa described as an Armageddon, where citizens must hold the line and fight to preserve democracy. Freedoms and democratic institutions are slipping away, and it may be difficult to get them back, she warned.
In her book, Ressa described three convergent crises: “the crisis of truth where tech platforms and AI have destroyed the information ecosystem and splintering shared reality; the crisis of order, propelled by the US through wars without Congressional approvals and arresting journalists who document the chaos; and the crisis of accountability where institutions have been captured, laws weaponized against people, and those with power answer to no one.”
She went on to say, as she had mentioned in her past guesting stints, “Americans wake up. The Philippines has gone to hell and now in purgatory. You are just on your way to hell. This moment you need to act.”
Ressa, the founder and CEO for Rappler, highlighted that there are two dictators in our public lives now: political dictators which comprise 70% of the world and big digital technology which has helped create the former.
Citing her own experience, she mentioned former Philippine President Duterte and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook as those two dictators, with the higher level of impunity on the latter.
“President Duterte is facing trial at The Hague. There is a degree of accountability on that. But Zuckerberg continues to do business. Facebook has even removed its fact-checking program. Technology now rules our lives, and impunity continues. There must be truth, order, and accountability," she explained.
Ressa could never have been more urgent: the need to stop the impunity of technology in the name of commercial and political surveillance. She said that the UN is currently mauling agreements and regulations for member states to protect their digital ecosystems.
Journo to journo. This writer in a serious chat with Maria Ressa.
She asked the audience to take action by creating community, supporting journalists, and developing your own (information) infrastructure to continuously dig and stand for the truth.
Support your local journalists, she emphasized. “Without truth and facts, there is no democracy. There is no shared reality.”
Ressa was also particularly wary on the vulnerability of youth in the internet, where bullying, deception, and cybersex have led many young people to suicide and depression. “We have to hold tech to account,” she noted. #
