MANILA, Philippines – The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has affirmed the acquittal of Rappler chief executive officer and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa, and Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) in four counts of tax violations.
In a decision dated February 21, but was only made public this week, the tax appellate court denied the government’s petition for review and certiorari seeking to nullify the ruling and resolution that cleared Ressa and RHC in four tax evasion cases. The company charged was RHC, the holding company of the subsidiary, news organization Rappler Incorporated.
“WHEREFORE, premises considered, the instant Verified Petition for Review (of the Resolution dated May 18, 2023, on the Civil Aspect) and Verified Petition for Certiorari are DENIED for lack of merit,” the CTA said in its decision penned by Associate Justice Corazon Ferrer Flores.
“The assailed Decision dated January 18, 2023 and the assailed Resolution dated May 18, 2023 rendered by the First Division of this Court in CTA Crim. Case Nos. 0-679, 0-680, O-681 and O-682 are AFFIRMED,” the court added.
In its decision, the CTA en banc said the CTA division that earlier ruled on the case did not commit any grave abuse of discretion which resulted in lack or excess of jurisdiction. If a party is found to have committed grave abuse of discretion, a court will overturn the earlier decision of that said body.
Agreeing with the division ruling, the CTA en banc reiterated that RHC is not a dealer in securities. This is at the root of the case because the Department of Justice and Bureau of Internal Revenue under the Rodrigo Duterte administration claimed that RHC acted as a dealer in securities when it issued Philippine Depositary Receipts to foreign investors North Base Media and Omidyar Network.
RHC’s legal counsels have maintained that the company did not act as a dealer in securities so Rappler did not commit tax evasion, contrary to the Duterte government’s claim.
In its January 2023 decision that acquitted Rappler, the CTA division ruled that RHC did not act as a dealer in securities because the tax code defines a dealer in securities as one regularly engaged in such activity. This was also reiterated by the en banc in its February 2025 decision.
“Evidence on record shows that RHC was not habitually or regularly engaged in the purchase and re-sale of securities as the issuance of the PDRS by RHC was done pursuant to a legitimate business purpose, i.e. to raise capital for its subsidiary RI (Rappler Inc.), which is consistent with one of the purposes of RHC as a holding company,” the court explained.
“Since there is no gain or profit and the transaction is not a sale of shares of RI, the Court En Banc joins the Court in Division in ruling that RHC is not required to pay the income tax and VAT on the PDR transactions. Since the findings of the Court in Division that the act from which the alleged civil liability arose did not exist, the civil liability in the instant case is extinguished,” the CTA en banc added.
Ressa and RHC have been cleared of all their tax-related cases filed under the Duterte administration. In September 2023, Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 157 Presiding Judge Ana Teresa Cornejo-Tomacruz cleared the Nobel laureate and RHC of their fifth and last tax case.
When the government appealed the decision to the CTA since the said tribunal also has appellate functions, the court junked the government’s petition in July 2024 and upheld Ressa and RHC’s acquittal in the Pasig City court.
The legal cases against Ressa and Rappler are down to two, from a pile of suits filed under Duterte:
- the appeal of the cyber libel conviction of Ressa and former Rappler researcher Rey Santos Jr., which is pending before the Supreme Court
- the anti-dummy case filed against Ressa and Rappler directors with another Pasig Court, which Rappler had asked to be nullified
– Rappler.com