Crisologo DQ sought over arson, homicide

MANILA, Philippines — A petition for disqualification was filed with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday against Quezon City mayoral bet Vincent Crisologo over his conviction for arson and arson with homicide.

In a four-page petition, Ma. Sophia Zamora of Diliman said the poll body should not allow Crisologo to run in next month’s midterm polls.

Zamora said Crisologo was sentenced to a double life term in 1970 but received a conditional pardon from the late president Ferdinand Marcos in 1981, based on records from Malacañang and the Board of Pardons and Parole.

Citing Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code, she claimed “any person who has been declared by a competent authority insane or incompetent, or has been sentenced by final judgment for subversion, insurrection, rebellion or for any offense for which he has been sentenced to a penalty of more than 18 months or for a crime involving moral turpitude, shall be disqualified to be a candidate and to hold any office, unless he has been given plenary pardon or amnesty.”

Zamora added that the code stipulates that a “pardon shall not work with restoration of the right to hold public office or the right of suffrage, unless such rights be expressly restored by the terms of the pardon.”

She said without the express restoration in the conditional pardon, Crisologo “must be deemed disqualified from being a candidate or holding public office.”