Journalist Maria Ressa and her company, Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC), will have to continue to deal with their legal woes after the Department of Justice (DOJ) denied their appeal to reverse its earlier decision to indict them for various tax charges. The DOJ passed a resolution junking their plea on Nov. 29 but this was made known to the media only yesterday.
ABS-CBN News reported that Assistant State Prosecutor Zenamar Machacon-Caparros rejected Ressa and RHC’s stand that they were not security dealers who had to pay tax when they sold Philippine Depository Receipts (PDRs) in 2015.
Machacon-Caparros said in her resolution: “We are, however, standing by our conviction that in so far as the subject securities and the related transactional activities are concerned, movant RHC is deemed to have dealer status within the contemplation of the Tax Code.”
She said that the volume and frequency of transactions RHC made were sufficient proof to consider the company as a dealer in securities.
According to the DOJ, RHC and Ressa did not declare a profit of PHP162.41 million from the issuance of Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) almost four years ago, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported.
Companies issue PDRs to foreigners and Filipinos so they could raise capital. PDRs are not certificates of ownership of a corporation, but they give those who purchase them the right to the dividends of the stock which they acquired.
A securities dealer meanwhile is a person or company engaged in selling securities or financial instruments such as stocks.
Inquirer reported that RHC and Ressa were charged at the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) with three counts of violating the internal revenue code for allegedly failing to submit the correct information in their tax returns in 2015. They were also charged with one count of tax evasion at the CTA.
But it doesn’t end there. One count of tax evasion was filed against RHC and Ressa at the Pasig Regional Trial Court, reported ABS-CBN News.
Ressa, who is currently out on bail, will be arraigned in Pasig on Feb. 6, reported GMA News.
She has maintained that the charges were politically-motivated due to Rappler’s testy relationship with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
In February 2018, Duterte ordered the Malacañang Palace’s Internal House Affairs Office to ban Ressa and Rappler reporter Pia Ranada from entering the Palace.
Duterte also called Rappler “a fake news outlet” after it published a report about how his special assistant Christopher “Bong” Go allegedly got involved in the selection of suppliers for the Philippine Navy’s warships.
