A petition to cancel the certificate of candidacy (COC) of former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. was raffled off to the Commission on Elections second division, multiple sources said.
Several human rights groups last week raised Marcos’ conviction on July 27, 1995 for his failure to file income tax returns several times from 1982 to 1985.
The petitioners said Marcos was ineligible to run for office on ground of moral turpitude due to the controversial tax case.
The raffle, conducted Monday afternoon, included other similar COC cancellation petitions against other national and local aspirants.
The second division is composed of commissioners Socorro Inting and Antonio Kho Jr.
Earlier, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the process might take six weeks to resolve.
Meanwhile, a petition-in-intervention was filed before Comelec seeking to join the plea to cancel Marcos’ COC.
Like the previous petitioners, the group led by Dr. Rommel Bautista cited the conviction of Marcos on his non-filing of tax returns for six years.
But at least two legal experts said the non-filing of ITR is not tantamount to moral turpitude.
Dean Nilo Divina of the Faculty of Law of the University of Santo Tomas efforts to delist Marcos from the roster of candidates for the 2022 presidential race would most likely fail for lack of merits.
“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,” Divina said in a statement.
“It’s ad hominem, or an attack against the character of the respondent, that may weaken the petitioners’ 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 said.
Divina shared the view of Ateneo University law expert and former Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, saying the petition filed with the Comelec to cancel the CoC of Marcos had no basis and is unlikely to move forward.
Agra said it was clearly stated in the Omnibus Election Code that Marcos was qualified to run for the presidency in next year’s election because he has no shortcomings in his COC submission.
Agra said the law stated that to cancel the COC of any candidate, he or she must be found guilty and punished with more than 18 months of imprisonment or be convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.
“Moral turpitude, if you are a bit rude, immoral, you really want to cheat or commit fraud. The question now is: is not filing an income tax return a crime involving moral turpitude? Of course not,” Agra said.