BBM to Leni: Tell groups to withdraw DQ petition
Former senator and presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., asked his opponent, Vice President Leni Robredo, to tell the petitioners of the disqualification complaint filed against him to withdraw the petition if she has nothing to do with it.
“She should tell her allies to withdraw (the petition) if that is her opinon,” Marcos said in Filipino when asked to comment on Robredo’s recent statement, denying that the opposition is behind the petition filed against him before the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
Robredo added that she would not resort to that kind of strategy in the 2022 national and local elections as she already won in the vice presidential race by a huge number of votes against Marcos in the 2016 elections without such antics.
Some civic groups composed of former political detainees and human rights advocates recently filed a petition before the Comelec, asking the poll body to cancel his certificate of candidacy (COC) for “false material representation” as they argue that the former senator was convicted in 1995 for failure to pay taxes from 1982 to 1985.
The Comelec has yet to decide on the matter.
Asked to comment on the petition, Marcos said he considered it a “nuisance” petition as it was just brought up now that he is running for the presidency, as he emphasized that he has already been in eight elections.
“I considered it as a nuisance complaint because ever since that case, I’ve already been through eight elections. In my opinion, that issue is done. Of course, the opposition would like to have a new issue,” he said.
“So, let’s see. The lawyers I’ve been talking to say it’s really a nuisance petition. But when the time comes we will still answer, explain and show that there are no grounds for dismissing my candidacy,” Marcos added.
He said that he has already read parts of the petition and for him, “it does not look like a legal document” as he emphasized that he is “very confident” that the Comelec will scrap the petition.
University of Sto. Tomas law dean Nilo Divina also believes that the petition has insufficient legal basis.
“As I see it, the petition to cancel BBM’s certificate of candidacy is bound to collapse once evaluated by the Comelec because it appears to be defective in form and offers insufficient legal basis to obtain its desired judgement,” said Divina, founder of one of the country’s leading law firms.
He explained that the 57page petition laid down attacks and invectives against Marcos, instead of presenting factual statements and legal basis to support its claim of his ineligibility to run for the presidency.
“It’s ad hominem, or an attack against the character of the respondent, that may weaken the petitioner’s position. It is the law, always, that matters. However, it is the intent that invokes the law that often justifies or bungles it. But at the end of the day, the law remains the law,” Divina stressed in an interview.
Divina was the second legal luminary who expressed opinions against the petition which sought to cancel or deny Marcos’ COC.
Last week, former Justice secretary Alberto Agra said the case is dismissible since it lacked a crucial component.
“One of the bases for disqualification of a candidate is when he or she is convicted of a crime with penalty of imprisonment of more than 18 months or crime involving moral turpitude. In his case, he was convicted but the penalty did not include imprisonment and only a fine,” he explained in a radio interview.
“It’s possible that he is eligible to run. The term used in the law is clear – sentenced to imprisonment. He was not sentenced to imprisonment and the decision already became final,” Agra stressed.
Agra, an election law professor at Ateneo law school who served as justice secretary during the Arroyo administration, further said that even the element of moral turpitude would not apply on the tax case.
“If you failed to file tax return or if there’s discrepancy, that’s not a crime involving moral turpitude because there is no fraud involved,” he pointed out.
More petitions
A group of individuals recently filed a petition-inintervention before the Comelec and supported the call for the disqualification of Marcos’ COC.
In a 64-page petition filed before the Comelec late Monday afternoon, petitioner-intervenors led by Edwin Theodoro Reyes asked the poll body to cancel outright the COC of Marcos in connection with the 2022 elections for suffering perpetual disqualification from public office or that said COC be denied due course.
“The petitioner-intervenors most respectfully seek succor from the Honorable Commission to consider the instant petition-intervention, or at least undertake its mandatory administrative obligation to cancel the candidacy of respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. as he is indubitably suffering from disqualification because he is a convicted criminal that is suffering from perpetual disqualification from office,” the petitioner-intervenors said.
Howard Calleja is the legal counsel of the petitioner-intervenors.
The petition-in-intervention was filed in support of the petition filed by supporters of political detainees last Nov. 2 that sought to cancel or deny due course Marcos’ COC.
The petitioner-intervenors raised the arguments that the 64-year-old Marcos has been convicted, thus he is perpetually ineligible to run for public office and that he also made false material representations in his COC.
They reiterated that Marcos was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Section 45 and Section 50 of the 1977 National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 105.
But the RTC’s decision was later modified by the NIRC “and merely imposed a fine, deleting, although illegally, the penalty and imprisonment, which is provided for under Section 245 of the NIRC of 1977.”
The RTC’s decision was modified that while Marcos was reportedly found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violation of Section 45 for failure to file income tax returns for the taxable years 1982 to 1985 in four criminal cases, he was only ordered to pay the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) the deficiency income taxes due with interest at the legal rate until fully paid.
He was ordered to pay P2,000 for three criminal cases for failure to file income tax returns for the years 1982-1984 and the fine of P30,000 for one criminal case for failure to file income tax returns for 1985, with surcharge.
As for the void Court of Appeals decision, the petitionerintervenors said it completely ignored Section 254 of the 1977 NIRC that mandated the imposition of both a fine and imprisonment for any conviction due to, among others, the failure to file a return, pay taxes, withholding and remit taxes and refund excess taxes withheld on compensation.
“Respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. made material representations in his COC, which necessitates the immediate cancellation of his COC, or that the same be denied due course. It should be emphasized that these false material representations of respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. were specifically calibrated to mislead, misinform and deceive the voting public, knowing that admitting the same would have detrimental effect on his candidacy,” they said.
“We note that such false misrepresentations of respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. constitute perjury, which the Honorable Commission should not countenance,” they added.
They alleged that the former senator is also ineligible to run for president because his conviction for violation amounts to “moral turpitude,” especially since it has not been shown that he complied with and suffered the penalty imposed on him when he was convicted.
Quiet
The Comelec remains mum on reports that the petition to disqualify the presidential bid of Marcos has been raffled off to its second division, a few weeks after it was filed.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez was not available for comment when asked if Marcos’ case has been raffled off, as reports came out yesterday that Commissioners Socorro Inting and Antonio Kho Jr. will handle the petition filed against the former senator.
Jimenez previously said the Comelec is expected to discuss the petition by next month.
One of the petitioners, Fides Lim, spokesperson for civic group Kapatid, said that they have not yet received the notice from the Comelec as far as the development on their petition is concerned, but said that she was informed by a reporter that Marcos’ case was already raffled off.
“We pray to the Lord almighty that the Comelec will now proceed with utmost dispatch to resolve our petition because our future hangs in the balance,” Lim said as she emphasized that Marcos lied on his COC that he is qualified to run despite being convicted for tax evasion.