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MANILA, Philippines – Petitioners of the consolidated case that sought to disqualify ousted dictator’s son Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from the 2022 presidential race decried the decision of a Commission on Elections (Comelec) body to junk their petitions.
The Comelec’s 1st Division, on Thursday, February 10, dismissed three consolidated petitions which raised Marcos Jr.’s tax conviction in the 1990s as basis for his disqualification.
All two commissioners in the division found that Marcos Jr. did not commit a crime involving moral turpitude – a ground for disqualification under the election code – when he failed to file his income tax returns in the 1980s.
In a statement, party-list group Akbayan, one of the petitioners, called the Comelec’s dismissal order “a major setback for the country’s electoral democracy.”
“It is a missed opportunity to defend the truth and protect the public from a large election swindle by a convicted tax evader,” Akbayan first nominee Percy Cendaña said.
Akbayan added it would appeal to the Comelec en banc and “pursue this case to the end.”
Martial Law survivors who were also petitioners in the case also vowed not to give up despite the cards they were dealt with for now.
“The decision does not put the disqualification to a close, but further cast doubt not only on the case but on the Comelec as well,” said Howard Calleja, lawyer for some of the petitioners. “At this point, we will continue to exhaust all legal remedies to bring out the truth, attain justice, and bring the issue to the proper legal conclusion it deserves.”
Carry on with campaign
Marcos Jr., meanwhile, hailed the Comelec First Division ruling.
“Maybe we can carry on with the campaign without all of these distractions that were put in the way and allow our own people to make their own decisions,” Marcos Jr. said.
“The Petitioners in this case… were found guilty of lying and of deliberately misleading the Comelec by intentionally quoting the wrong provisions of the law and squeezed them into their faulty narratives,” his spokesman Vic Rodriguez added in a statement, echoing an observation made by the First Division in its February 10 ruling.
Currently, there is still one pending case in the Second Division–a disqualification petition filed by an Ilocano group whose lawyer is former Comelec chairman Christian Monsod.
There are also two cases that are the subject of appeals in the Comelec en banc.
Whichever party loses in the en banc review can still run to the Supreme Court to fight their case.
– with a report from Lian Buan/Rappler.com
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