Marias Journal ✍️
Good day, Miss Ressa. My first "Hello" here to you,typing this text from the UK. I'm not a journalist but I am as curious as space X- trying to find out what's beyond an invisible barriers in whatever aspects of life's operations. Just bear with me as I am trying to familiarise myself with your community platform.
Thank you for welcoming me here at your Rappler Community chat line.
Kind Regards,
Edita
Welcome, Edita!! Thank you for experimenting with us! Let me know how I can help
Good morning from NYC! It's been an incredible fall - and just now getting cold here. I teach my last class on Wednesday, and my gosh, time has moved so fast. Spent Thanksgiving with my sister and her partner, who flew in from LA. More tomorrow - so much to tell you about!
Yes, we will be eagerly waiting to hear what you have to say about tomorrow.
Hi Maria! Hi everyone!
Sorry for the delay, Eriberto! And welcome @Joey K !
sent you a gift 🎁 💐 lols
Hello Maam Maria!Im one of your millions fan..Hello everyone
Hello Maam Maria!Im one of your millions fan..Hello everyone
Welcome, Ruby!
Good morning from Manila! I woke up at 5am and one of the first messages I looked at was a link to the #NobelPrize https://www.youtube.com/live/lBueLHd2Ojw?si=AsIMFZi6tgRHrAP7 and I watched while I was making coffee. It reminds me of a time of reprieve on Dec 10, 2021 ... wow, it's been 4 years ago! Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela was represented by her daughter. Machado has been in hiding since she challenged Maduro, and while she's expected in Oslo later, she didn't make it in time for the ceremony. Gosh, hearing the bells, watching the blue skies, seeing the great hall ... so many things going through my mind: how the world has gotten worse in the last 4 years, not better (although despite the turmoil and anti-corruption protests in the PH - or maybe because of it? my country has moved from hell to purgatory ...) Hearing the trumpets, seeing the Royal Family ... seeing the walk in the hall ... we need men and women of courage now. Sorry to ramble so early in the morning ... watching the sun rise now. Machado is a controversial choice for some, others stand staunchly behind her. I need to learn more. Listening now to Jørgen Watne Frydnes, who - 4 years ago - was the youngest member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Back then, he was telling us about Utoya - and how he led the move to rebuild community and trust in Norway after the 2011 terrorist attack of Anders Breivik ... Jorgen is impressive and serves simultaneously as the Sec Gen of PEN Norway. So many emotions simultaneosly now ... will come back to you later!
When No One Knocks: How Inaction Enables Abuse in the IT-BPM Sector “No collection without a final tax assessment” is a principle worth defending. Due process protects taxpayers from arbitrary state power, and no democracy should allow the collection of taxes without lawful authority. But that principle leaves a more troubling question unanswered: what happens when no assessment ever begins? In theory, tax enforcement follows a clear sequence. A Letter of Authority authorizes an audit. An assessment establishes liability. Collection follows, subject to appeal. The system is designed to balance the rights of the taxpayer and the interests of the State. In practice, particularly in parts of the Philippine IT-BPM and BPO sector, the chain often breaks at the very first step. No LOA. No assessment. No collection. No appeal. No accountability. This is not a loophole in the law. It is a vacuum created by regulatory inaction. And that vacuum does not remain empty. Over the past decade, offshore IT operations supporting foreign companies have expanded rapidly in the Philippines. Public disclosures highlight soaring revenues, global clients, and thousands of Filipino workers powering overseas businesses. Many of these operations are formally registered as Regional Headquarters (RHQs) under Republic Act No. 8756. Under the law, RHQs are allowed only limited functions: supervision, coordination, and administrative support. They are explicitly defined as non-revenue-generating entities. That distinction determines tax treatment, regulatory exposure, and eligibility for incentives. Yet without audits, no one asks the questions that actually matter. Who controls recruitment and hiring? Who directs daily operations tied to foreign revenue? Who sets performance targets and staffing levels? Who processes payroll and manages employee records? Who enables the income ultimately declared abroad? Without an LOA, these questions never leave the shadows. The hidden data risk The consequences of inaction extend beyond taxation. Offshore IT-BPM operations are not just labor-intensive. They are data-intensive. Philippine-based workers routinely handle, generate, and store large volumes of sensitive personal data: payroll information, identification documents, tax records, performance evaluations, disciplinary files, and sometimes even customer data linked to foreign markets. When RHQs or contracting entities operate beyond their lawful authority, a critical question arises: what is the lawful basis for this data processing? If an RHQ is legally restricted to non-operational functions, yet in practice processes payroll, manages performance data, and controls workforce systems, then the data processing that supports those activities is itself placed on legally unstable ground. The risk is not abstract. When disputes arise, some employees report retaliation, legal pressure, or even public exposure of confidential employment records. Without clear employer accountability and effective regulatory oversight, workers are left exposed on two fronts: economically and informationally. A question of scale Publicly available disclosures show how large the stakes can be. Consider a conservative, hypothetical illustration based solely on public admissions. One offshore IT services provider disclosed revenue growth from AUD 12 million in FY22 to AUD 66 million in FY25, driven by offshore delivery. Philippine records and internal documents indicate a local workforce of approximately 1,900 to 2,000 Filipino employees supporting these operations. Using conservative assumptions for illustration only: • If just 50 percent of that revenue is enabled by Philippine offshore operations, that equates to AUD 33 million per year. • Converted conservatively, this is roughly PHP 1.2 billion annually. • At a 25 percent corporate income tax rate, this suggests approximately PHP 300 million per year in potential corporate income tax exposure. • Over three years, this reaches roughly PHP 900 million, excluding withholding taxes, payroll obligations, penalties, surcharges, and interest. These figures are not a tax assessment. They are a visualization of scale. They raise a simple question regulators are empowered, but not compelled, to ask: How can an operation enabling revenue of this magnitude be reflected in Philippine filings as a non-revenue-generating RHQ? Where employee protection disappears For workers inside these structures, the cost of inaction is immediate. When corporate layering obscures who the real employer is, workers lose access to basic protections: security of tenure, clear grievance mechanisms, whistleblower protection, and accountability for retaliation. Complaints fall between entities. Responsibility is deflected. Legal remedies become slow, fragmented, and exhausting. At the same time, workers’ personal data continues to circulate through systems they do not control, processed by entities whose authority is unclear and whose accountability is diffuse. The result is a perfect storm: • no audit to test tax compliance • no clear employer to enforce labor rights • no single data controller clearly accountable • and no coordinated regulatory response Due process versus permanent silence This is not an argument for aggressive or abusive enforcement. Due process must be preserved. But due process cannot become a permanent justification for silence. A system that never initiates review does not protect rights. It protects abuse. If an offshore operation employs thousands of Filipinos, enables substantial foreign revenue, and processes sensitive personal data, should it remain effectively invisible to regulators simply because no Letter of Authority was issued? And if regulators consistently choose not to look, who benefits from that silence? The law already exists. The workers are already here. The data is already being processed. The money is already moving. What remains unanswered is whether the State is willing to knock.https://www.rappler.com/voices/thought-leaders/vantage-point-bir-freeze-letters-of-authority-philippines-revisit-gross-income-taxation/
We - and other companies like us - know the abuse of the LOA, but abuse is not a permanent state. It's important to have accountability to make any system work
Merry Christmas, Friends! I'm watching a beautiful Christmas day sunset and thinking about how to summarize 2025 and assess what 2026 will require from us. So I looked back to this piece last year. My first thought was that - gosh, every Rappler Christmas party I seem to spend some part of it on zoom - last year was with the Nobel Women's Initiative; this year was a board meeting for Coda - anyway, here it is: https://www.rappler.com/plus-membership-program/exclusive-content/tech-maria-ressa-rebuild-rubble/
The year that was - and hello, 2026 https://www.rappler.com/voices/newsletters/democracy-battle-journalism-tech-maria-ressa-2026/
The US actions in Venezuela destroy the old world order. What does it mean for the Philippines? De Lima's statement: https://www.rappler.com/philippines/united-states-venezuela-attack-alliance-reactions/