NOBEL laureate Maria Ressa has welcomed her fifth acquittal on the tax evasion cases filed against her.
On Tuesday, Ressa, who is chief executive officer of Rappler, a local news website, was acquitted by the Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 157 of the fifth tax evasion charge filed against her, which meant that all five cases have been dropped.'Another acquittal! 2 more criminal charges and 1 potential shutdown left... but you gotta have faith,' Ressa posted on her Facebook page on Tuesday.
The two cases, in particular, referred to a conviction appeal on the cyber libel charge against Ressa and a former researcher which remains pending before the Supreme Court, while another is a petition by Rappler to the Court of Appeals for a temporary restraining order against the Securities and Exchange Commission that ordered the news site to be shut down in 2018.