BILANG PILIPINO | Comelec to begin hearing Marcos’ disqualification cases in January

December 21, 2021 , 12:50 PM

By Beatrice Puente

(December 21, 2021) – Presidential aspirant Bongbong Marcos Jr. will begin facing his disqualification cases next month after the assigned division at the Commission on Elections (Comelec) issued the summons for the three petitions on Tuesday.

Commissioner Rowena Guanzon, a member of the Comelec First Division, said they scheduled the preliminary conference on January 7. Three of the four disqualification cases have been raffled off to their division.

All 3 summons in 3 cases in first div have been served .preliminary conference on Jan 7 @COMELEC Akbayan petition looks better than the others.

— Rowena Guanzon (@rowena_guanzon) December 21, 2021

Comelec spokesperson James Jimenez said there is no indication the three cases will be consolidated. He added that the retirement of the three commissioners in the Comelec en banc won’t affect the schedule.

“That should not affect the timeline because the primary decision will be coming from the division. I think the commissioners would want to clear their docket before they retire,” said Jimenez in a media briefing.

Guanzon, the remaining appointee of the late former President Noynoy Aquino III, will retire in February, leaving Marlon Casquejo and Aimee Ferolino in the Comelec First Division. Aside from Guanzon, Comelec chairperson Sheriff Abas and commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. will also retire next year.

In a tweet, Guanzon urged the public not to blame the Comelec for the alleged delays in hearing Marcos’ disqualification cases ahead of the 2022 elections. She said one of the three groups did not serve a petition to Marcos’ camp.

Guanzon also said the petition filed by progressive group Akbayan “looks better than the others.” Akbayan’s disqualification petition banks on the tax evasion conviction of the late dictator’s son from 1982 to 1985 while serving as Ilocos Norte governor, noting that the Court of Appeals’ removal of his prison term was “a mistake.”

“When the respondent decided to evade his duty of filing his income tax returns for the years 1982 to 1985, he was robbing the government of the opportunity to ascertain the correct income taxes due from him,” said Akbayan.

Martial Law victims led by the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law were the first to file a disqualification case last November. But some legal experts feared this may be dismissed as it asked for the cancellation of Marcos’ certificate of candidacy (COC), calling its inclusion “a fatal mistake.”

Invoking grounds for cancellation in a disqualification petition violates Rule 25 of the Comelec rules of procedure.

Another disqualification case was filed by Abubakar Mangalen, who identified himself as the chairman of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, saying some members were shocked upon the party’s endorsement of Marcos.

The last disqualification petition filed by Margarita Salonga Salandanan’s group from the north, meanwhile, was raffled off to the Comelec Second Division, which also handles the two petitions to cancel Marcos’ COC.

(PM | With reports from Greg Gregorio, News 5)

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