BILANG PILIPINO | Poll body releases Guanzon’s separate opinion on Marcos Jr.’s disqualification cases

January 31, 2022 , 06:43 PM

By Clarist Mae Zablan, News5 Digital

(January 31, 2022) – The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Monday released a separate opinion penned by a retiring commission favoring the petitions to disqualify the only son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos from running in the May elections on the grounds that he was convicted of tax evasion.

There were no surprises because Commissioner Rowena Guanzon already leaked her vote to the press to disqualify Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr because the tax case conviction in the late 1990s was a crime of moral turpitude.

Guanzon authorized the poll body to release her separate decision, two days before her retirement.

“I vote to grant the petitions for disqualification filed against respondent Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos, Jr. The facts are undisputed,” Guanzon wrote in her separate opinion.

“In view of the foregoing, I vote to grant petitions for disqualification and declare respondent Ferdinand R. Marcos disqualified from running for the position of President of the Philippines.”

READ | COMELEC Commissioner Rowena Guanzon releases separate opinion voting in favor of the disqualification of Presidential Aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. @onenewsph @News5PH pic.twitter.com/M7qqBOzNxL

— Greg Gregorio (@GVGregorio_TV5) January 31, 2022

Marcos, who was a local official during his father’s regime, was convicted by a lower court for not paying his income taxes from 1982 to 1985, which under tax laws would ban him from holding any public office.

“As a high government official at that time, respondent (Marcos Jr) must be well-aware of his obligations to file his tax returns,” Guanzon said in her 24-page opinion. “As such a high official, the Respondent had staff to help him in administrative matters. Thus, there is no possible excuse for not exerting the slightest of efforts to comply with what everyone else complies with.”

Guanzon said the non-payment of taxes was deliberate because he repeated it several times and he also failed to pay the penalties imposed by the lower court.

Marcos Jr had benefited from his non-filing of tax returns and deprived the government of a chance to make sure that the income taxes withheld by the provincial government correctly corresponded with what he earned, Guanzon added.

She also questioned the evidence presented by Marcos to show that he had already settled the fines and tax deficiency, noting the official receipt (O.R.) he had submitted was not machine validated and appeared to be used for payment of lease rental. The receipt also contained an erasure on the date.

“The fact that the LBP (Land Bank of the Philippines) O.R. was purportedly issued by a bank no less, which is expected to exercise extraordinary diligence in the conduct of its business, makes the particular document highly suspect,” she said.

In media interviews, Marcos said he failed to file his income tax returns because he was in exile after the 1986 EDSA People Power revolution in February. Income tax returns are filed every April.

But he could be forgiven for the non-filing of income tax returns only for 1985 but he had failed to file his income tax returns for 1982 to 1984, which constitutes a crime of moral turpitude.

Guanzon, who presides the Comelec’s first division, leaked her vote to the press last week, suspecting that the ponente of the case, another commissioner Aimee Ferolino, was being influenced into deliberately delaying the release of the resolution to prevent her vote and opinion from being included.

Ferolino has denied deliberately delaying the case, accusing Guanzon of unduly rushing her to release the resolution she was assigned to pen, and of pressuring her to adopt her opinion.

The first division was assigned to handle the three petitions separately filed by Akbayan Partylist, a group of Martial Law survivors led by screenwriter Bonifacio Ilagan, and a faction of Marcos Jr’s political party Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP).

The former senator is also facing one more disqualification petition filed by residents of Ilocos region, his bailiwick, which was raffled to the second division. A group of civic leaders have also filed a motion seeking to reverse the denial of their petition to cancel his certificate of candidacy.

(MM)

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