The Supreme Court has removed all legal barriers for President-elect Bongbong Marcos to take office after it junked all the petitions seeking to disqualify him.
Sources tell the media that the high court has voted 13-0 to allow Marcos to sit as the next president of the Philippines.
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The ruling was written by SC Justice Rodil Zalameda while Justices Henry Inting and Antonio Kho inhibited from the case. Kho was among the Comelec Commissioners who also tackled on the petitions while Inting is related to Comelec OIC Socorro Inting.
The petitions asked the court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the canvassing of votes for Marcos. They also want Marcos to be disqualified for his failure to file his income taxes when he was still an Ilocos Norte official.
The Marcos camp sought the dismissal of the petitions.
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“To allow the defeated and rejected candidate to take over is to disenfranchise the citizens representing 58.77% of the votes cast, without fault on their part,” the Marcos legal counsel said.
“If all of these do not yet suffice, BBM’s vote of 31,629,783, is more than twice as many as the vote of Leni Robredo with 15,035,773 votes, the voice of the Filipino electorate is true and clear that they do not only find grounds to disqualify BBM, but they want him to be the President of the Republic of the Philippines,” lawyer Estelito Mendoza said.
