INDIVIDUALS looking to stop the presidential candidacy of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr in the May elections yesterday appealed to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to cancel his certificate of candidacy (COC), saying failure to do so is tantamount to letting him continuously deceive the people.
In a 69-page Memorandum and Formal Offer of Evidence, the petitioners led by Fr Christian Buenafe said the Comelec should stop Marcos’ candidacy to prevent him from continuing his deception of the Filipino people.
The petition of Buenafe’s group is one of seven cases filed against Marcos’ the latter’s presidential bid at the Comelec.
The filing of the memorandum falls on the last day of the period given by the Comelec to the petitioners and the respondent before the case is deemed submitted for resolution.
The Marcos camp also filed its memorandum yesterday.
The Buenafe group, referring to Marcos’ tax evasion case, said in the memorandum, “Inevitably, the court found that respondent Marcos Jr.’s repeated failures to file a return was neither borne of sheer ignorance nor of innocent neglect and so concluded that being a public official, who knows the importance of taxes, his serial offending could only have been willful, intentional and deliberate.”
“His seeming absolution by being allowed to become executor of the dictator’s last will and testament allowed him to mislead the people about his lack of eligibility not just once but several times. He now seeks to foist the success of his own deception to allow him the opportunity to deceive yet again,” they added.
They also said Marcos election as senator despite being disqualified “does not affect a candidate’s criminal conviction.”
“It should not thereby prevent, as it, in fact, impels the cancellation of a certificate of candidacy for material misrepresentation,” they said.
The group again asked the poll body to rule on the case swiftly, saying a “provisional inclusion” of Marcos’ name in official ballots may cause “undue and unwanted conditioning” of the people.
“While it is more practicable to include his name provisionally, it is far more deleterious, in the long run, to do so as any final decision that may confirm what is already patent, i.e., that the COC should be canceled, may be rendered moot by his inclusion in the official ballot,” added the petitioners.
As to when can the Comelec Second Division will be able to decide on the case, Comelec spokesmen James Jimenez said it is uncertain.
