On Monday, January 17, the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) Second Division denied the petition to cancel the Certificate of Candidacy (COC) of presidential aspirant and late dictator’s son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for the upcoming 2022 national elections.
The 50-paged petition was filed by lawyers and civic groups led by former SC spokesperson Theodore Te, priest Fr. Christian Buenafe, and political prisoner’s group KAPATID. The petitioners accused Marcos’ COC as containing “multiple false material representations.”
“Marcos falsified his [COC] when he claimed that he was eligible to be a candidate for President of the Philippines in the 2022 national elections when in fact he is disqualified from doing so,”the petitioners said.
Public court records show that Marcos Jr. was convicted for tax evasion in 1995 after failing to comply with income tax returns (ITR) from years 1982 to 1985 — however, his sentence remains unserved.
VeraFiles, an independent media organization, fact-checked Marcos’ camp and found out that the dictator’s son did not pay his penalties and tax duties ordered by the Court of Appeals from the 1995 and 1997 tax evasion cases.
READ: https://verafiles.org/articles/marcos-has-not-paid-tax-deficiencies-and-fine-1997-evasion-c
The petitioners raised that Marcos declared in his COC that he has never been held liable for any offense, but the incontestable fact of his 1995 conviction reveals otherwise. The QC RTC Branch 105 ruled that Marcos is guilty beyond reasonable doubt for violating Sections 45 and 50 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).
While the Court decided to reduce his imprisonment to paying fines, the petitioners pointed out Presidential Decree (PD) No. 1994, signed into law by Marcos Jr.’s father, which stated that in cases of conviction of a crime penalized under the NIRC, the accessory penalty includes perpetual disqualification from holding any public office, from voting, and from participating in any elections.
“Clearly, the inescapable fact is that the mere fact of conviction for violations of the provisions of the NIRC perpetually disqualifies respondent Marcos Jr. from participating in any election, more so to run for any public office,” the petitioners further argued.
Additionally, they asserted that Marcos’ repeated failure to file his ITR is considered a crime involving moral turpitude—which can be considered for disqualification.
Petitioners claimed he has acted against honesty, justice, and good morals so they cited Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code which should have prohibited him from being a candidate in the first place—in effect, his COC should have been cancelled.
However, despite the petitioners’ arguments, the COMELEC dismissed the Buenafe et, al. petition this morning. The 32-page ruling said that there is “no ground to cancel Marcos Jr.’s COC on the ground of material misrepresentation.”
The ruling was penned by Comm. Socorro Inting and concurred by Comms. Antonio Kho and Rey Bulay. All were appointed by Pres. Duterte, whose daughter is Marcos Jr.’s runningmate, while Kho and Bulay are Duterte’s frat brothers. Meanwhile, Inting served as a judge in Davao
The petitioner’s disagreed with the decision. “In essence, the Comelec agreed with the petitioners that the representations made in Item 11 and Box 22 of the COC of Marcos Jr. are material but disagreed that they were false; in the process, the Second Division ruled that there was no ground to cancel Marcos Jr.’s COC on the ground of material misrepresentation,”they said.
However, COMELEC spokesperson James Jimenez added that “the offense of failure to file income tax is not a crime involving moral turpitude, [and] that only the Supreme Court can determine which crimes involve moral turpitude.”
The petitioners said that they will file an appeal for reconsideration with the commission within the given five-day period. This motion can be elevated to the COMELEC en banc and the Supreme Court for a final decision.
Meanwhile, the First Division’s decision on another set of Marcos, Jr’s disqualification cases is still yet to be publicized. COMELEC Director Elaiza Sabille David announced that the draft for the said decision was delayed due to staff members of commissioners testing positive for COVID-19.
Marcos Jr. currently faces three pending disqualification cases against his presidential bid. Petitions filed by the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law (CARMMA), party-list group Akbayan, and National Commission on Muslim Filipinos former Commissioner Abubakar Mangelen are handled by Commissioners Rowena Guanzon, Marlon Casquejo, and Aimee Ferolino of the COMELEC First Division.
These cases were presided over last January 7 to which Marcos, Jr. was a no-show, owing to his alleged COVID-19 symptoms. However, reports of his attendance to a live radio show on the same day have circulated social media.
Should Marcos Jr. be disqualified before the May elections, he can be substituted by someone with the same surname. If he is disqualified after assuming office, he will be replaced by the winning vice president, according to Jimenez.
As of the December polls, Marcos and Duterte have been in the lead for presidential and vice-presidential picks.
However, KAPATID Chair Fides Lim, one of the petitioners says that the ruling is “very strange and contradictory.” “We cannot have a liar, a cheat, and a convicted tax evader making fools of us all as he claws his way to the presidency while lying through his teeth,” Lim added.
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
Featured image courtesy of Rappler
