Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, September 12 welcomed the Pasig City court’s decision to acquit Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Maria Ressa and Rapper Holdings Corp. (RHC) of tax evasion.

The decision was promulgated by Pasig City Regional Trial Court Branch 157, Presiding Judge Ana Teresa T. Cornejo-Tomacruz.

The ruling was released eight (8) months after the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) acquitted Ressa and RHC of four counts of tax evasion.

“The victory of Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and Rappler Holdings Corp. in the last in a series of trumped up tax evasion charges is a great triumph for press freedom in the Philippines,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

“I hope for the dismissal of other charges against Maria Ressa and other journalists at the receiving end of sham libel cases,” the opposition senator also said.

Hontiveros lamented that “truth-tellers” are often attacked and persecuted by those who weaponize the law to trample on their fundamental freedoms.

“This is exactly the reason why I filed Senate Bill No. 1593 that seeks to decriminalize libel which has often been used to gag members of the press,” she said.

“These charges against Maria Ressa and Rappler are borne out of the legal harassment initiated by the previous administration over the fearless reporting of the brutal and failed war on drugs and other excesses,” added the senator.

She said it is high-time the government should stop wasting public money and resources running after independent and critical journalists for doing their jobs and instead make the country safer for them.

“It is unacceptable in a democracy for more journalists like Percy Lapid to be harassed, attacked or worse, killed,” she said.

“We maintain that critical journalism is not a crime. I join all Filipino journalists in continuing to hold the line as we keep our courage on in defending press freedom,” the lawmaker emphasized.