Comelec hears case vs Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — The petition to disqualify former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from next year’s presidential race as well as to nullify and void his certificate of candidacy has been submitted for resolution at the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

It was alleged in the petition filed by Abubakar Mangelen that Marcos is not even a member of the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) and is, thus, illegally representing the political party.

Mangelen, who failed to attend yesterday’s hearing, said he is the chairman of the PFP. He claimed that he has not received any notice of hearing from the poll body.

His absence prompted the Comelec First Division, led by Commissioners Rowena Guanzon and Aimee Ferolino-Ampoloquio, to have the case submitted for resolution.

At yesterday’s preliminary conference, the Division also ordered the parties of two other petitions – those filed separately by Bonifacio Ilagan and the Akbayan Citizen’s Action Party against Marcos’ candidacy – to submit their respective memoranda within two days.

Marcos was also absent during the conference. His lawyer, Hanna Barcena, told the body that the former lawmaker was “not feeling well” and presented a doctor’s text message about his medical condition.

He is allegedly in isolation at a quarantine facility after exposure to his chief security officer and spokesman Vic Rodriguez, who both tested positive for COVID-19.

Ilagan’s lawyer, Antonio Salvador, argued that Marcos should be disqualified from the presidency because the latter was perpetually disqualified from holding public office when a trial court convicted him for failure to pay taxes from 1982 to 1985 and penalized him with jail time of more than 18 months.

Akbayan lawyer Jake Rey Fajardo raised at least seven issues, including the failure to pay taxes, failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 and failure to pay the imposed fine.

While admitting some issues, Barcena denied that Marcos failed to pay his taxes from 1982 to 1985. As proof, she presented payment documents from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) dated Dec. 27, 2001 and a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) certification dated Dec. 9, 2021.

Barcena also denied that Marcos has been convicted of violating the National Internal Revenue Code, claiming that the case was appealed before the Court of Appeals, a claim that Salvador said was already resolved when the CA upheld the lower court decision.

Although Barcena acknowledged the CA decision, she stressed that it did not disqualify Marcos from holding public office.

Guanzon concluded the preliminary conference, ordering both camps to submit their respective memoranda within 48 hours or until noon of Jan. 9 along with the evidence they have presented during the conference in PDF format through email. The hard copy is to be submitted at noon on Monday, Jan. 10.

The Marcos camp welcomed the Comelec decision to delist two other presidential aspirants with the same surname – Tiburcio Marcos and Maria Aurora Marcos – as nuisance candidates.

“We give it to the members of this august body for seeing through the schemes and machinations of certain political camps to make a mockery of the electoral process by resorting to gutter politics,” Rodriguez said in a text message. – Edu Punay, Elizabeth Marcelo