By ALYSSA MAE CLARIN
Bulatlat.com
MANILA — Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) have been acquitted, Sept. 12, of the remaining tax evasion charges filed against them by the previous administration.
Based on the decision of Presiding Judge Ana Teresa Cornejo-Tomacruz of the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 157, both Ressa and Rappler are acquitted “on the ground that they did not commit the offense charged.”
“All the dismissed tax cases were based on the false and flimsy premise that, when Rappler issued Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) in 2015, it was not raising capital but earning a taxable profit, which it supposedly willfully did not declare,” said Rappler in their released statement.
According to the ruling, RHC’s PDR transactions with North Based Media were just in line with the company’s purpose as a holding company. Pasig RTC’s ruling only reaffirmed the previous ruling of the Court of Tax Appeals last January, which also acquitted Ressa and Rappler of four tax evasion charges.
Read: Court acquits Rappler, Maria Ressa of tax evasion
“The ruling came eight months after the Court of Tax Appeals also dismissed four other tax cases filed against Rappler by the Duterte-era Bureau of Internal Revenue and Department of Justice,” Rappler added.
The recent court decision also means that Ressa and RHC are no longer facing any tax evasion charges, ending four years and 10 months of trial since it was filed by the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte in November 2018.
The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) congratulated Ressa and Rappler’s victory, saying that the acquittal would have been unimaginable in the political climate of the previous administration.
“That the tax cases filed against our colleagues have been dismissed give credence to the argument that these were politically motivated and were filed to harass and intimidate Maria and Rappler,” NUJP said.
“As other colleagues face cases related to their work as journalists, this latest legal victory is a reminder for all of us to continue to hold the line,” the organization added. (RTS, RVO) 
