The journalist who leads a news site that has battled Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte turned herself in on Monday to face what she described as a “manufactured” tax fraud case that carries the threat of a decade behind bars.
A day after Rappler CEO Maria Ressa flew home to the Philippines under the threat of an arrest warrant, she surrendered at a Manila court and was allowed to remain free after paying a cash bail.
In other developments:
• Malacañang said Monday Duterte “has nothing to do” with the issuance of an arrest warrant against Ressa, and that the cases against her and her outfit were tax-evasion charges and not political persecution.
“We have repeatedly said that we never and will never interfere with the function of the Judiciary, as well as the other branch,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.
“If the Judiciary finds probable cause for an information filed, we have to respect the law on the matter.”
• Senator Risa Hontiveros said the issuance of an arrest warrant against Ressa was yet another attempt by the Duterte administration to silence dissent and to muzzle the media.
“The Duterte administration is implementing a harass the dissenters, protect the plunderers” policy,” Hontiveros said.
Rappler has been hit by a string of government efforts to shut it down since the site took a critical tone on Duterte, in particular his internationally condemned drug war that has killed thousands.
Ressa now faces the prospect of a trial in an overburdened court system that is notoriously susceptible to influence from powerful elites.
“They [the charges] are politically motivated and… they are manufactured,” she told journalists outside court. “Rappler pays the right taxes.”
If found guilty of the charge that Rappler provided false information to tax authorities, she risks up to 10 years behind bars. She posted a bail equivalent of $1,100 (970 euros).
Campaigners condemned the charge, which is one of several tax fraud cases the government filed against Rappler and Ressa last week while she was out of the country to attend a series of prominent journalism events.
The charges are “part of the Duterte administration’s campaign to harass, threaten and intimidate critics,” said Human Rights Watch Philippines researcher Carlos Conde.
“The attacks on Rappler are consistent with the way the Duterte administration has treated other ‘drug war’ critics,” he said.
Duterte bristles at the attacks on his signature campaign to rid the nation of drugs, which police say has killed nearly 5,000 alleged dealers and users who resisted arrest.
Some of the crackdown’s highest profile critics have wound up behind bars, including Senator Leila de Lima, who was jailed on drug charges she insists were fabricated to silence her.
The government accuses Rappler Holdings Corp., Ressa and the site’s accountant of failing to pay taxes on 2015 bond sales that it alleges netted gains of P162.5 million ($3 million).
The bonds, called Philippine Depositary Receipts, are at the heart of a case that led the Philippines’ corporate watchdog to void the news site’s corporate license in January.
Duterte has attacked other media outfits that criticize him, including The Philippine Daily Inquirer and major broadcaster ABS-CBN, threatening to also go after their owners over alleged unpaid taxes. The government said the charges against Ressa were the consequence of wrongdoing, not retribution.
“You violate tax laws, then you will be prosecuted,” Duterte’s spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.
When Ressa returned to the Philippines Sunday night, she told a crowd of TV news cameras at the airport that she would keep fighting.
“I am going to hold my government accountable for publicly calling me a criminal. I am not a criminal,” she said.
“I have been a journalist my entire life. I will continue to hold the government accountable,” she added. With Nat Mariano and Macon Ramos-Araneta
READ: DOJ files tax cases vs Rappler, Maria Ressa”‹