A PASIG court has acquitted Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) and its chief executive officer, Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, from a tax evasion case that stemmed from the alleged incorrect and inaccurate information on their income tax return for 2015.
In an 18-page decision, Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 157 Presiding Judge Ana Teresa Cornejo-Tomacruz acquitted RHC and Ressa who were accused of violating Section 255 of the 1997 National Internal Revenue Code “on the ground that they did not commit the offense.”
Tomacruz also dismissed the civil aspect of the case.
The charges were filed in 2018, under the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
Rappler was accused of evading tax payments amounting to around P141 million when it increased its capital through partnership with foreign investor North Base Media (NBM) and Omidyar Network (ON) involving the issuance to the two entities of Philippine Depositary Receipts or PDRs that grant them the right to the delivery or sale of underlying shares, among others.
“RHC did not sell the PDRs to NBM in the regular course of its business to gain profit, but issued the PDRS as part of a larger scheme to legally raise capital for its subsidiary. It is thus not liable to pay VAT on these transactions under Section 105 of the Tax Code,” the ruling read.
In January 2023, the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) acquitted Ressa of the similar charges after the prosecution failed to prove the accused’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The CTA upheld the non-taxability of the issuance of PDRs to North Base Media and Omidyar Network, noting there was no gain or income realized by the accused in the subject transactions.
Ressa, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is currently out on bail amid an ongoing appeal on her cyber libel conviction along with former Rappler researcher-writer Rey Santos.
Rappler is also facing closure order issued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for the violation of constitutional and statutory restrictions on foreign ownership in mass media. (SunStar Philippines)