'No healing': Marcos faces 2nd petition from Martial Law survivors to disqualify presidential bid
MANILA, Philippines — Martial Law victims and survivors along with religious and youth rights advocates led by the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law filed the second petition urging the Commission on Elections to disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr. from running as president in 2022 elections.
The petitioners, represented by lawyers Howard Calleja and Jake Rey Fajardo, pointed to what they said was the "false material representation" in Marcos' certificate of candidacy under the Omnibus Election Code when he claimed that he was eligible to be elected as president and that he was never been found liable of any offense despite his conviction in tax evasion cases.
Referring to Marcos' 1995 conviction from a Quezon City Regional Trial Court on multiple failures to file income tax returns, the petitioners asserted that Marcos Jr. was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt of violating Sections 45 and 50 of the National Internal Revenue Code. This, they said, should render Marcos "perpetually ineligible to run for public office."
“At this defining moment of our history, the petitioners, martial law victims, are staking their good name to call upon the Honorable Commission to hold to account respondent Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., a convicted criminal, having been found guilty of four counts of tax evasion, and impose upon him the penalties provided under the law, over which there was a final finding of guilt and, necessarily, disqualify him as such is what is expressly required by law, which, with due respect, the Honorable Commission has no discretion to ignore,” the petition read.
"The honorable Commission has the mandatory administrative duty to cancel the certificate of candidacy of respondent convicted candidate Marcos Jr. and must even do so motu propio," it also argued.
Section 253(c) of the NIRC says that if the person convicted of a crime penalized by the NIRC is a public officer or employee, the “maximum penalty for the offense shall be imposed and, in addition, he shall be dismissed from the public service and perpetually disqualified from holding any public office, to vote and to participate in any election.”
The petitioners are:
- martial law victims and survivors such as CARMMA conveners Bonifacio Ilagan
- journalist and former Bayan Muna Rep. Satur Ocampo
- Bagong Alyansang Makabayan chair Dr. Carol Araullo
- indigenous leader Joanna Cariño
- Karapatan chair Elisa Tita Lubi
- former Gabriela Women’s Party Rep. Liza Maza
- Samahan ng Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto vice chair Danilo Dela Fuente
- urban poor leaders Trinidad Herrera-Repuno and Carmencita Florentino,
- University of the Philippines Department of Social Sciences professor Doroteo Abaya Jr.
- former Human Rights Victims Claims Board member Dr. Erlinda Senturias.
'No healing without justice'
This is the second petition contesting Marcos' presidential bid after six leaders from groups of political detainees, human rights and medical organizations accused Marcos of filing a COC that “contains multiple false material representations” before the Comelec. The poll body has scheduled a preliminary meeting on Friday, November 26 to tackle the first disqualification complaint.
In a statement sent to media, CARMMA warned that allowing Marcos Jr. to run “might lead to a white-washing and further proliferation of historical revisionism of the gravely inhumane abuses and extremely grand corruption” committed by his father’s dictatorship.
"Martial Law still remains fresh in the memories of its many victims and the relatives and friends of those who were tortured, raped, and murdered despite being declared more than five decades ago," the petition said.
The petitioners pointed to the numerous abuses committed during the Marcos dictatorship, from the rampant corruption to the unbridled human rights violations by law enforcement personnel.
During the two decades of the Marcos dictatorship, the World Bank and United Nations have determined that the Marcos family stole around ten billion dollars from the Philippine coffers. The government's own laws and jurisprudence has proven and upheld the Marcos family's pillaging of the country's money.
"There can be no healing if there is no justice," the petitioners said in their prefatory statement.
"If we are to embark on a journey of national healing, there must be true accountability and those who have committed wrongdoings should be called upon to account for their deeds, especially for those who seek national office in an attempt to rehabilitate and cover up their misdeeds."
— Franco Luna with a report from Kristine Joy Patag
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