MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) on July 16 junked for “lack of merit” a plea by the solicitor general to reverse a Pasig court’s acquittal of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) in a tax case.

In a 15-page decision written by Associate Justice Belen Ringpis-Liban of the CTA’s 2nd Division, the court denied the petition for certiorari filed by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) on December 29, 2023, against Pasig Regional Trial Court 157 Judge Ana Teresa Cornejo-Tomacruz, who had acquitted Ressa and RHC of tax evasion charges in September last year.

The acquittal pertained to the fifth tax case filed by the Duterte government against Rappler and Ressa. Prior to this, in January 2023, the CTA also cleared both of a set of four tax evasion charges.

The OSG has questioned the two decisions that favored Ressa and Rappler, for supposed grave abuse of discretion on the part of the courts. 

It was the OSG’s petition against Pasig Judge Tomacruz, that also called for a mistrial, that the CTA ruled on last July 16. “Records show that [the OSG] was given an ample opportunity to present its case” and was able to “present and formally offer its evidence,” the CTA said, adding there was also no basis to call for a mistrial.

Still pending with the CTA is the OSG’s other petition before the CTA en banc to nullify the 1st division’s acquittal of Ressa and RHC in January 2023 from four tax evasion charges.

The tax cases stemmed from the OSG’s claim that RHC acted as a “dealer in securities” when it issued Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to investors. The CTA ruled that the transactions were in line with the RHC’s purpose as a holding company.

The legal cases against Ressa and Rappler, as of July 2024, are down to three from a high of at least a dozen under the previous Duterte regime:

• the appeal of the cyber libel conviction of Ressa and former Rappler researcher Rey Santos Jr., which is pending before the Supreme Court
• Rappler Incorporated’s appeal with the Court of Appeals of the closure order against it by the Securities and Exchange Commission
• the anti-dummy case filed against Ressa and Rappler’s directors with another Pasig Court, which Rappler had asked to be nullified

Rappler and Ressa have said the cases were motivated by former president Rodrigo Duterte’s attacks against the news organization for its critical reporting. – Rappler.com