BY GERARD NAVAL and ASHZEL HACHERO
A SEVENTH petition seeking the disqualification of former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as a presidential candidate in the May 2022 polls was filed yesterday at the Commission on Elections, this time by members of an organization of Marcos’ fellow Ilocanos.
The “Pudno Nga Ilokano” (Real Ilocanos), in a 35-page petition for disqualification, asked the Comelec to perpetually bar Marcos from seeking public office, aside from disqualifying Marcos from the forthcoming polls.
The group said Marcos deserves to be in jail instead of having a shot at residing in Malacañang because he “willfully and arrogantly refused to pay taxes.”
“Paying taxes is the most basic responsibility of any decent member of a society. If we allow him to become leader of this country, how can he encourage the people, particularly the rich, to pay taxes when he did not do so, even as he was already a public official?” the petitioners said in a statement.
Members of the group who gathered in front of the Comelec office in Intramuros, Manila said the so-called “Solid North” no longer exists.
Marcos’ chief of staff and spokesman, Vic Rodriguez, said the petition is another “nuisance” case and asked “those who are behind these pathetic stunts to please respect the Filipino people and their democratic right to decide for themselves and their collective future.”
“We also urge them not to remove the right of the people to freely choose their leader and stop looking down on the intelligence of the Filipino people. Elections are won and settled on election day and not through the filing of nuisance petitions,” it added.
The petitioners in the latest disqualification case include Margarita Salonga Salandanan, Crisanto Ducusin Palabay, Mario Flores Ben, Danilo Austria Consumido, Raoul Hafalla Tividad, Nida Mallare Gatchallan, and Nomer Calulot Kuan.
Palabay said their group includes victims of martial law under Marcos’ father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos. She also said the so-called “Solid North,” which means solid support for the Marcoses from fellow Ilocanos, no longer exists.
In their petition, they said Marcos was convicted eight times by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court, Branch 105 in 1995 for failure to file his income tax returns as governor of Ilocos Norte for taxable years 1982 to 1985 and for the latter’s failure to pay the corresponding deficiency taxes.
They also said that while Marcos appealed the ruling before the Court of Appeals, the latter affirmed the guilty verdict but omitted the three years imprisonment imposed by the trial court and instead ordered him to pay the fine.
The verdict, they added, carries with it the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from the right of suffrage.
They also cited Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code which states that any person who has been sentenced by final judgments for any offense with a penalty of more than 18 months imprisonment or a crime involving moral turpitude are disqualified to hold public office and to be a candidate.
Filed earlier are the petitions for declaration as a nuisance candidate filed by Danilo Lihaylihay; for cancellation of certificate of candidacy (COC) by Fr Christian Buenafe et al; for cancellation of COC, by Tiburcio Marcos; for disqualification, by Bonifacio Ilagan and others; for disqualification by the party-list group Akbayan; and for disqualification by Abubakar Mangelen.
LENI IN BAGUIO
Opposition presidential aspirant Vice President Leni Robredo continued to barnstorm Baguio City yesterday, the country’s summer capital which is part of the Solid North.
Marcos Jr. defeated Robredo in Baguio City by a huge margin in the 2016 vice presidential race.
Robredo, who arrived in the city last Monday for a series of engagements, sought an audience with various religious orders at St. Louis University where she urged them to help her in rallying the people to push for reforms in the 2022 national elections.
The Vice President, who is the chair of the Liberal Party, particularly asked Church leaders to guide their flock in demanding the return of good governance in the wake of the Duterte presidency.
“We requested an audience because I think, no, I believe that you’ll be our able partner in pushing for this kind of reform),” Robredo told the clergy in Filipino, eliciting applause.
In pushing for reforms and organizing communities, Robredo said the clergy will be able to help them, including scholars who need financial support.
Robredo touted the creation of the “People’s Council” which her late husband institutionalized in his home town Naga City in Camarines Sur when he was a mayor to allow ordinary people from from various sectors to advice the city council in crafting legislation.
She said the council is composed of vendors, farmers, women, and other individuals from all walks of life, and it aims to have a parallel body to the city council.
She said the main goal is to “make sure that the voices of the ordinary – in our case, Nageño, was heard.”
“Meron kaming mechanism para pakinggan pero number two, is to also act as a fiscalizer of sorts ng mga nakaupo (So that we’ll have a mechanism to hear them but number two is to also act as a fiscalizer of sorts of those in position),” she said.
Meanwhile, Malacañang said the offer of Manila Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso to adopt President Duterte as senatorial candidate of his party Aksyon Demokratiko is a recognition of the Chief Executive’s many accomplishments. — With Wendell Vigilia and Jocelyn Montemayor
