Legal, but not moral

The current controversy over whether the conviction of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for failure to file income tax returns for taxable years 1982-1885 while serving as vice governor and governor of his province constitutes moral turpitude that would disqualify him from running for public office in the light of the argument that he was sentenced (on appeal) with merely a fine, i.e., without imprisonment, brings to the fore once again the aphorism that what is legal is not necessarily moral.

The Regional Trial Court of Quezon City sentenced Marcos Jr.  to an imprisonment of three years and a fine of P30,000 for his failure to file his income tax returns for taxable years 1982-1985 but on appeal, the Court of Appeals modified the sentence by deleting the penalty of imprisonment (although Section 255 of the Tax Code mandates a penalty of both fine and imprisonment) and ordering him “to pay the corresponding deficiency taxes, penalties and a fine.”

Stripped of legal technicalities, the issue ultimately boils down to one’s moral values or character. As Michael Josephson put it (quoted in Bill Moyers’ World of Ideas), “An ethical person ought to do more than he’s required to do and less than he’s allowed to do.”

And as former SC justice Antonio Carpio pointed out in his recent column, “I have always argued that the president must, above all else, have a good moral character.” – Diosdado V. Calonge, [email protected]