Yesterday, All Souls’ Day, which was declared by President Rodrigo Duterte as a Special Working Public Holiday, a group of petitioners from the ranks of political detainees, human rights, and medical organizations that opposed the Marcos dictatorship filed a petition to disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from running as president in the May 2022 elections.
The Petition to Cancel or Deny Due Course the Certificate of Candidacy of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. under Section 78 concerning Section 74, Article IX of the Omnibus Election Code was filed with the Commission on Elections (COMELEC), the country’s supreme poll body.
Fr. Christian “Toots” Buenafe, O.Carm. was one of the petitioners and said that Marcos’ Certificate of Candidacy (CoC) is full of false material representations claiming he was eligible to be a candidate for the upcoming national polls when in fact he is not. They claim that BBM is a convicted criminal, ergo, cannot be a candidate. For the record, Marcos was convicted by the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City in a July 27, 1995 Decision for his multiple failures to file income tax returns. Apparently, BBM did not pay his taxes for 4 years so it could be classified as tinted with moral turpitude.
Having been convicted by final judgment of a violation of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), Marcos is perpetually disqualified from holding any public office, to vote, and to participate in any election as mandated under the NIRC, according to the Petition. The Petition emphasizes too that the crime is one involving moral turpitude since, among others, Marcos and his family refused and continue to refuse to pay to the Filipino people roughly PhP 203.8 Billion in estate taxes, inclusive of interests, surcharge, and other penalties.
Fr. Toots through his private message to me this morning said that he is praying that the COMELEC will listen to their appeal. He also told me that, “The petition to disqualify Marcos Jr. to hold any public office is a test of the rule of law.” The petitioners' lawyer is Theodore Te, a human rights lawyer from Free Legal Assistance Group or FLAG and former spox of the Supreme Court.
This is a question of integrity and would be a burden and a challenge not only to Marcos Jr. but to the poll body itself and also the petitioners for there would be a tedious legal battle ahead of them. Fr. Toots signed the Petition in his capacity as chair of the Task Force Detainees of the Philippines (TFDP), a church-based organization headed before by Sister Mariani C. Dimaranan, a Catholic nun jailed and tortured by the despotic martial rule of Ferdinand Marcos, Sr. in 1973. The late Sister Mariani, considered a pioneer human rights defender in the land and our province mate, was born February 1, 1925, in Lubang, (Occidental) Mindoro.
A dark and uncertain legal tunnel is ahead of us in this case but one thing is certain: of all the 2022 presidential aspirants, only Marcos Jr. has been convicted in a tax evasion case in court.
My short reflection for these two junctures: All Souls Day then reinforces our longing for a more just and legally upright society and our determination to act and build a nation where truth prevails and the laws and justice are implemented to all without fear or favor, particularly those oppressed and victimized by injustice. Our fellow Filipinos who have died, like Sister Mariani, live beyond the reach of this political condition, but they provide a mirror for us to judge how we participate and get involved in earthly affairs, especially in politics.
The petitioners lighted a candle yesterday in this light.
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(Photo:
Philippine Star)
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