The Commission on Elections (Comelec) will immediately tackle the petition to cancel the certificate of candidacy (COC) filed against former senator and presidential aspirant Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said the poll body would discuss this week if there was indeed a misrepresentation committed by the former senator.
In a television interview, Jimenez said the Comelec will conduct hearings to resolve the petition filed against Marcos, to find out if there was a material misrepresentation in his certificate of candidacy (COC).
He said the petition needs to prove there was untruthfulness or wrong information given in the COC, he said.
Jimenez confirmed that a cancelation of COC was filed and the case will be heard but did not mention who would handle the case and when it would be discussed.
“Let’s wait for the announcement of the hearing because again at this point this is a live case we cannot go into too many details,’’ he said.
“There is no time limit to this as they need to find out if what the complainants are saying are true and also hear the defense of the other party,” the poll spokesman said.
Marcos said he would not back down and withdraw from the presidential race, calling the petition a political ploy.
“I don’t understand because they said there was a problem with my candidacy. They said there is a case that has not been fixed. I don’t know. We will just answer it in time,” Marcos said in a radio interview.
“Maybe that is also part of the politicking, especially of our opponents. Instead of facing the election, because maybe they are afraid of the number of votes, then they will just have me disqualified,” he added.
On Tuesday, petitioners Fr. Christian Buenafe, Fides Lim, Ma. Edeliza Hernandez, Celia Lagman Sevilla, Roland Vibal, and Josephine Lascano, filed a petition to cancel Marcos’ COC for containing multiple false material representations.
They said 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,” a crime involving moral turpitude.
The petitioners claimed that Marcos is not eligible to run for any public office because he was convicted.
They also claimed that the Court of Appeals upheld the decision which was no longer appealed before the Supreme Court, “thereby becoming a final and unappealable conviction.”
Marcos spokesperson, lawyer Victor Rodriguez, said they would address “this predictable nuisance petition” at the proper time and forum after they have received the official copy.
“Until then, we will refrain from commenting on their propaganda. Our camp does not engage in gutter politics. Our campaign is about nation-building. For Presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos, this election is about the future of the Filipino people,” Rodriguez added.
But one of the groups asking for the cancellation of the candidacy of Marcos denied it was a nuisance plea.
“Who is the real nuisance here?” said Lim, spokesman of the human rights group Kapatid-Families and Friends of Political Prisoners, in an interview with CNN Philippines.
The petitioners said the certificate of candidacy of Marcos contains “multiple false material representations,” including his assertion that he is eligible to seek the presidency.
Marcos, they said, was convicted in July 1995 by a Quezon City court for multiple failures to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985.
Marcos served as vice governor of Ilocos Norte from 1981 to 1983 and was governor from 1983 to 1986.
In its ruling, the local court sentenced Marcos to at least nine years in jail and ordered him to pay the fine, but the Appellate Court modified the decision and “improperly” deleted the penalty of imprisonment, the petitioners noted.
“So now we are pointing out, why is there selective justice? Why is there a double standard when it comes to people like the Marcos family, in particular and now, no less than the namesake of the dictator, who is gunning for the highest position in the land?” Lim asked.