Filipina journalist Maria RessaNobel Peace Prize in 2021 together with the Russian journalist Dmitry Muratovwas acquitted along with her online news company Rappler from allegations of tax evasion. The Philippine Tax Appeals Court ruled today that prosecutors failed to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” the allegation that Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corp. they had evaded taxes in four cases after raising capital through partnerships with two foreign investors. “The defendants’ acquittal is based on the Court’s findings that the defendants did not commit the alleged crime,” the court said in its decision.
“Today the facts win, the truth wins, justice wins,” commented Ressa, according to whom the allegations were part of a series of lawsuits used according to him by the former president Rodrigo Duterte to silence critical news. Crowd and Rappler they face three more lawsuits, including an appeal against a defamation conviction.
Rappler he hailed the court’s decision as “the triumph of facts over politics”. “We thank the court for this just decision and for recognizing that the fraudulent, false and insubstantial allegations made by the Bureau of Internal Revenue have no basis in fact,” Rappler said in a statement. The tax charges against Ressa e Rappler stem from a separate allegation made in 2018 by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Manila-based corporate regulator, that the news website violated a constitutional provision that prohibits foreign ownership and control of media companies from Philippines when it received funds from foreign investors Omidyar Network e North Base Media through financial documents called “Philippine Depositary Receipts”.
Because the Nobel went to Maria Ressa, the Filipino journalist who became an icon of resistance for democracy
by Raimondo Bultrini
The Philippine commission then ordered the site shut down based on the allegation: Rappler he denied and appealed claiming to be a wholly Filipino owned and controlled news company. The tax court ruled that Philippine Depositary Receipts issued by Rappler are not taxable, eliminating the basis of tax evasion charges filed by Justice Department prosecutors under Duterte.
Rapplerfounded in 2012, was one of several Philippine and international news agencies critically reporting on the brutal crackdown on Duterte against illegal drugs, which has resulted in the deaths of thousands of suspects, mostly minors, and its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, including lengthy lockdowns, which have exacerbated poverty, caused one of the worst recessions in the country and sparked allegations of corruption in government purchases of medicines. The massive drug-related killings have sparked an investigation by the International Criminal Court as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte ended his turbulent 6-year tenure last year and succeeded him Ferdinand Marcos Jrthe son of a dictator who was overthrown in an army-backed uprising in 1986, after an era marked by widespread human rights abuses and looting.