The Commission on Elections said a fourth disqualification case against presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was raffled to its second division.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the petition filed by Ilocano survivors of Martial Law seeks to disqualify the former senator from next year’s presidential race for having been found guilty of a crime involving moral turpitude.
“The Comelec will set a preliminary conference,” Jimenez said.
The petition filed by the Pudno Nga Ilocano is the seventh petition lodged against Marcos, making his presidential bid the most legally-contested in the country’s recent election history.
Last week, the poll body dismissed one of the disqualification cases filed against Marcos by Danilo Lihaylihay, who is also running for president in the 2022 polls.
The 2nd Division said Lihaylihay’s petition was “grossly insufficient” and failed to prove Marcos was a nuisance candidate.
The two other petitions pending before the second division are those filed by civic leaders represented by lawyer Ted Te and by another presidential aspirant, Tiburcio Marcos.
The 2nd Division is composed of Commissioners Socorro Inting and Antonio Kho Jr.
The petitions filed against Marcos stemmed from his alleged failure to pay his income tax returns in the 1980s as well as failure to pay the fines imposed by the court.
The Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 105 earlier said there is no record on their file on Marcos’ “compliance of payment or satisfaction” on the decision of the said court in 1995, as well as the Court of Appeals verdict in 1997.
In his own answer to the Comelec filed last month through his lawyer, Estelito Mendoza, Marcos said the CA’s first order was “unclear.”
“It does not specify the particular deficiency income tax which the appellant is required to pay with interest at the rate until fully paid.
What is clear is that defendant BBM is ordered to pay a fine,” said Mendoza’s answer for Marcos.
The group of Martial Law victims said Marcos was convicted for his failure to file his income tax returns. The tax cases were decided on July 27, 1995 by the QC RTC and by the Court of Appeals in its decision on October 31, 1997.