RAPPLER CEO Maria Ressa and treasurer James Bitanga failed to show up Tuesday at the Department of Justice to submit their counter affidavit to the P133-million tax evasion case filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue in March against the holding company that owns the online news site.
Instead, only their lawyers appeared during the DoJ hearing on Tuesday.
The counter affidavit and supporting documents were supposed to be submitted in accordance with an order by Assistant State Prosecutor Zenamar J.L. Machacon-Caparros to have these filed by April 24 and May 7 at the DoJ office in Manila.
According to the lawyers, they did not receive a copy of the complaint.
Ressa is expected to appear before the DoJ on the next date, May 7, and file her counter affidavit then.
The lawyers did not give a statement to media on Tuesday.
The members of the team from the Bureau of Internal Revenue also refused to be interviewed by media, saying they were not authorized to do so.
Ressa, Bitanga, and Rappler Holdings Corp. were named in a complaint by the BIR for alleged willful attempt to “evade or defeat tax and for deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information in its annual income tax return and value-added tax returns” in 2015.
The BIR accused RHC of failing to pay an aggregate tax liability of P133,841,305.75 despite allegedly profiting in 2015 from the sale of Philippine Depository Receipts to two foreign judicial entities.
The complaint comes weeks after Omidyar Network, to whom Rappler sold more than seven-million PDRs, donated its PDRs to 14 Filipino managers of the news site.
Omidyar said it did this to eliminate the Securities and Exchange Commission’s ruling against Rappler Inc. and RHC that caused the media company to lose its certificate of incorporation.
The SEC accused Rappler of supposedly violating the foreign ownership restrictions on mass media companies for welcoming Omidyar as one of its investors through PDR sales.