Rappler hits new NBI, BIR raps

Online news outfit Rappler has criticized the decision of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to file separate charges of tax evasion and cyber libel against the firm’s officials.

Rappler yesterday questioned the NBI decision to revive the cyber libel complaint that it earlier dismissed.

“As party to the case, we are not provided any notice, the letter was only leaked to the media, yet the NBI, to date, has refused to speak with our reporter about it,” the organization said.

“Why would the NBI risk its credibility and reputation, and reverse its earlier ruling? Are there instructions from higherups whom NBI officials could not say no to?” it added.

The NBI on Thursday confirmed that it filed a libel complaint against Rappler on March 2, but did not provide details on why it reversed its earlier dismissal of the cyber libel complaint filed by businessman Wilfredo Keng over a 2012 article.

“The NBI’s legal and evaluation service found that the one-year prescriptive period for libel had lapsed with the complaint filed five years after the publication of the story,” said the news outfit.

“Also, the story was published four months before the cybercrime law was enacted. We had reported that criminal laws are not retroactive,” it added.

Rappler claimed that the Duterte administration is using state resources to harass the organization, saying news of the complaint came out even as the BIR announced the filing of tax evasion charges.

“This is clear intimidation and harassment,” Rappler chief executive officer Maria Ressa said in reaction to the BIR complaint. “The government is wasting its energy and resources in an attempt to silence reporting that does not please the administration.”

The BIR accused Ressa and other officials of Rappler Holdings Corp., parent company of the media organization, of willfully attempting to evade tax payments and failing to provide accurate information in its income tax and valueadded tax returns for 2015.

Ressa dubbed the complaint as “ludicrous” and urged the BIR to “check its own records.”

Rappler said it has been paying its taxes “accurately, promptly and diligently,” reminding the BIR that it even commended the organization as one of Revenue Region 7’s top 500 corporate taxpayers.