MANILA – The Court of Tax Appeals 1st Division decided to go on with the trial for the P70-million tax deficiency cases against Rappler Holdings Corp. and its chief executive officer Maria Ressa.
In a resolution released on late Friday, the tax court rejected Ressa’s appeal to send back her case to the Department of Justice (DOJ) since the language and wording of the 4 information against Ressa were sufficient to constitute the crimes.
“The Supreme Court has ruled that an information need only to state the ultimate facts constituting the offense and not the finer details of why and how the crime was committed,” the resolution said.
The resolution added that the issue on whether Rappler is a dealer in securities, as alleged by the DOJ and denied by the company, is a matter to be discussed during trial proper.
“The issue of whether or not the accused is considered a ‘dealer in securities’ is a matter which can be ventilated by the presentation of evidence during trial,” the court said.
It also said Rappler’s argument for the return of the case back to the DOJ over a pending motion for reconsideration against its indictment is “already moot” as the motion has already been denied.
With the rejection of Ressa’s appeal, the tax court decided to set the preliminary conference on March 6 for the marking of exhibits of both the prosecution and defense, while pre-trial is set on March 13.
Ressa was charged with three counts of failure to file return and supply correct information and pay and remit taxes, and one count of tax evasion before the Court of Tax Appeals.
The cases stemmed from tax deficiencies amounting to P13.082 million, P48.723 million and P8.422 million, or a total of P70.227 million, in 2015 when Rappler sold Philippine Depositary Receipts to NBM Rappler L.P. and Omidyar Network Fund LLC./PN
