” (File photo: Maria Ressa/Twitter)
Wednesday morning, April 3, has greeted news outfit Rappler’s chief executive officer (CEO) with good news as she pleaded not guilty to her four tax-related cases before the Court of Tax Appeals’ (CTA) First Division.
Maria Ressa, who is also Rappler’s executive editor, is facing one count of violation of Section 254 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) , also known as tax evasion, as well as three counts of alleged violation of Section 255 of the NIRC for not being able to give the correct Income Tax Return (ITR) in 2015 and Value Added Tax (VAT) returns for the third and fourth quarters of 2015.
Rappler reported that these cases also involved the Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) that it issued to its foreign investor Omidyar Network.
The hearing for Ressa’s tax cases is set on May 15, Wednesday.
In a tweet, Ressa thanked the CTA for “shining the light” on the first arraignment among the 11 legal cases lodged against the news outfit within 14 months.
“Posted bail 8 times. Each of the 4 tax charged today carry [a] max[imum of] 10 years in prison. That’s 40 years! but I remain hopeful we will get justice. #HoldTheLine,” she wrote.
Meanwhile, in an interview with reporters after her arraignment, Ressa said, “sitting there and thinking about it makes me slightly angry, so my anger management is still there.”
But despite how her case was “professionally” handled, Ressa said, “I’d still say that these cases are all politically motivated.”
Ressa was arrested twice in less than two months. She was first nabbed in February over a cyber libel case but was released after posting a P100,000 bail.
[READ: Rappler CEO walks out of detention after posting bail]
She was again arrested last week, this time, for allegedly violating the Anti-Dummy Law. She was freed hours after her arrest when she posted a P90,000 bail.