Human rights and justice advocates filed a petition before the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) seeking to bar Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. from running into next year's polls for allegedly committing misrepresentation on some parts of his certificate of candidacy (COC), November 2.
The petitioners were Christian Buenafe of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), Fides Lim of Kapatid, Ma. Edeliza Hernandez of Medical Action Group, Celia Lagman Sevilla of Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance Inc., Roland Vibal of Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates, and Josephine Lascano of Balay Rehabilitation Center.
They argue Marcos Jr. falsely stated in his COC that he is eligible to run for the presidency when his tax evasion conviction would render him ineligible to hold public office.
In a statement, Marcos Jr. downplayed the petition as mere politicking and said that he is ready to address all the issues raised by the petition in a proper forum. However, should the COMELEC and Supreme Court eventually rule to cancel Marcos’s COC, all the votes cast under his name will be declared null and void.
The petition stems from a 1995 decision of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 105 that found Marcos Jr. guilty of his failure to pay income tax from 1982 to 1985, a violation under the 1977 National Internal Revenue Code. The lower court sentenced Marcos to nine years of imprisonment and ordered him to pay the said taxes plus penalty.
The Court of Appeals, in 1997, would later uphold the lower court's ruling but removed the prison sentence and only ordered Marcos Jr. to pay fines.
But whether the dictator’s son was imprisoned or not, the mere fact of conviction has resulted in his perpetual disqualification from holding any public office and participating in any elections, the petitioners said.
"A misrepresentation regarding one's eligibility in a certificate of candidacy despite knowing one's conviction by final judgment which disqualifies him for public office is considered a false material representation, sufficient to warrant the cancellation of a certificate of candidacy," the petition said, citing the Supreme Court's ruling on the 2016 case of Ty-Delgado vs. House of Representative Electoral Tribunal.
In addition, the groups also alleged that Marcos Jr. is already disqualified since Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code bars individuals convicted of a crime involving "moral turpitude" from running for public office.
Though not all crimes constitute moral turpitude, a 2001 Supreme Court decision ruled that a crime still involves moral turpitude even if the penalty of imprisonment imposed is reduced to a fine. The petitioners said that Marcos's failure to file his income tax returns and inability to pay estate taxes amounting to P200 billion inherited to him by his father is an act of moral turpitude.
“The petition emphasizes that the crime is one involving moral turpitude since, among others, Marcos and his family continue to refuse to pay to the Filipino people roughly P203.8 billion in estate taxes, inclusive of interests, surcharge, and other penalties,” said Kapatid, one of the organizations that filed the petition.
These kinds of petitions aiming to cancel candidates' COC based on material misrepresentation are not new. In 2015, the COMELEC en banc unanimously voted to cancel Senator Grace Poe's COC for the presidency because of her lapses in stating her citizenship and residency requirements in her documents. However, this ruling was later overturned by the Supreme Court. ●
