The Philippine Presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr is facing a fresh petition seeking cancellation of his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) over tax fraud.
A group of ten professionals led by Dr. Rommel Bautista sought the cancellation of the COC. They filed a petition-in-intervention, through lawyer Howard Calleja, to join six civic leaders asking the Commission on Elections to cancel COC.
They made an assertion that they “have legal interest in the matter in litigation as they are citizens and registered voters who are respectfully invoking the Honorable Commission’s mandate to dutifully enforce election laws.”
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Citing the conviction of Marcos on his non-filing of tax returns for six years, the group said, “ Despite full knowledge of his disqualification, having been convicted of a crime penalized with perpetual disqualification from holding public office under the [National Internal Revenue Code], respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. would continue with his deceitful and lying ways, maliciously and falsely representing in his certificate of candidacy that he is eligible to be elected as President of the Philippines and that he has supposedly never been found liable for any offense, which carries the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.”
As per the petition the Quezon City trial court ordered Marcos to serve jail time and pay fines while directing him to “pay the Bureau of Internal Revenue the taxes due, including such penalties, interests and surcharges.”
The group noted that Marcos elevated this to the Court of Appeals that upheld the conviction in violation of Section 45 of the NIRC but “modified the decision of the RTC of Quezon City and merely imposed a fine, deleting, albeit illegally, the penalty of imprisonment.”
They said CA issued a “void” decision and therefore has no legal effect.
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“The Void CA Decision is such because it was issued with grave abuse of discretion and was executed against the provisions of mandatory or prohibitory laws,” the group said.
Citing section 254 of the NIRC that mandates the imposition of fine and imprisonment for a person who “willfully attempts in any manner to evade or defeat any tax”, they asked Comelec that CA issued a supposed “void judgment.”
They said, “As such since respondent convicted criminal Marcos was imposed the penalty of imprisonment exceeding eighteen months, his certificate of candidacy should be canceled for false material representation as he is actually disqualified under Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code,” (AW)
