Embattled journalist Maria Ressa will continue to face the multiple tax cases against her after the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) scheduled her arraignment for April and denied her appeal to suspend proceedings.
The resolution released today and dated March 21 set Ressa’s arraignment for April 3, Wednesday, at 8:30am, Christine Luna of the CTA’s First Division confirmed to Coconuts Manila.
This is in connection to four tax cases involving Rappler Holding’s Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDR) issued to the foreign investor Omidyar. PDRs allow foreign companies to invest in local ones without having ownership.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) had said that issuing the PDRs to Omidyar constitutes as selling securities, alleging that Rappler earned taxable income from them.
As the CEO of Rappler, Ressa is facing one count of tax evasion and three counts for allegedly declaring incorrect and inaccurate information on the company’s income tax return in 2015 and value-added tax returns in the 3rd and 4th quarters of the same year.
In February, the CTA denied Ressa’s move to dismiss the tax evasion case but according to Rappler, she later asked to suspend the proceedings first while her petition for review at the DOJ was still pending.
Apart from the four cases at the CTA, Ressa also has a separate administrative case pending in the Pasig City Regional Trial Court.
Ressa and Rappler have been slapped with various cases starting January last year when its license was revoked by the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly violating constitutional restrictions on ownership and control of mass media entities.
The SEC said funds coming from Omidyar constituted as foreign ownership — which is against Philippine law — even though they were made through PDRs.
Ressa was also arrested in February for a charge of cyber libel.
Many believe that these cases are politically motivated, especially because President Rodrigo Duterte has spoken out against Rappler’s criticisms of his administration.
