Rappler CEO Ressa: No due process in tax evasion case

MANILA, Philippines — Rappler CEO Maria Ressa said that the Bureau of Internal Revenue violated her right to due process when it filed a multimillion-peso tax evasion case against officers of the online news outfit.

"We did not commit the alleged crimes," Ressa said in a counter-affidavit filed before state prosecutors on Monday. She asserted that there is "no legal or factual basis for the complainants’ allegations. We have, at all times, performed our duties diligently and with utmost good faith and respect for the law."

READ: BIR slaps Rappler with tax evasion

"The complainants have concluded a criminal charge against us without actual field audit, in violation of our Constitutional right to due process," she also said. 

"We understand the usual tax evasion cases do not require prior administrative investigation. However, in such cases, the accused were found to have not disclosed their taxable transactions. Our situation is different."

Ressa is one of the respondents in a case filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue against Rappler Holdings Corp. and its executives. The agency alleged that Rappler owes P133,841,305.75 in taxes.

It specifically accused Rappler of violating the National Internal Revenue Code by a willful attempt to evade or defeat tax and for deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information in its annual income tax (IT) return and value added tax (VAT) returns for 2015.

BIR said its probe showed that RHC purchased common shares from Rappler Inc. worth P19,245,975 before it issued and sold Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) to two foreign firms worth P181,658,758.67.

The bureau noted that the annual RHC’s ITR and VAT returns for 2013 did not reflect the IT and VAT from the PDR transaction.

But Ressa argued that the company has “adequately disclosed” its PDR and subscription transactions in reports to the BIR and the Securities and Exchange Commissions.

“We could not be accused of misrepresentation in our tax returns because there was no reason for us to conclude that the claimed taxes were due,” Ressa’s counter-affidavit further reads.

Rappler is also facing a legal battle with the SEC at the Court of Appeals. The commission earlier cancelled the media agency’s business registration after it ruled that the company violated constitutional restrictions on ownersip and control of mass media.

Malacañang, citing the SEC ruling, has denied Rappler access to the compound and to President Rodrigo Duterte's speeches and events.

The agency’s editorial board is also facing raps, filed by the National Bureau of Investigation, over a 2012 investigative report that allegedly violated the Cybercrime Prevention Act .