Election body asked to disqualify Marcos presidential run

A taxpayer has filed a petition seeking to block the presidential run of the late dictator’s son Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos,Jr. at the Commission on Elections.

Mr. Marcos, a former senator, is ineligible to run for office after a trial court convicted him in 1995 for failing to pay income taxes, petitioner Fides Lim said in a statement.

He “falsified his certificate of candidacy when he claimed that he was eligible to be a candidate for president of the Philippines in the 2022 national elections when in fact he is disqualified from doing so,” she. said. “He is, plainly, a convicted criminal.”

His conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals and was never appealed before the Supreme Court, the plaintiff said.

Ms. Lim heads Kapatid, a group of families and friends of political prisoners. Her husband was imprisoned during the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos’s martial law rule.

“We shall address this predictable nuisance petition at the proper time and forum after we receive the official copy,” Vic Rodriguez, Mr. Marcos’s lawyer and chief of staff, said in a text message.

“Until then, we will refrain from commenting on their propaganda. Our camp does not engage in gutter politics,” he added. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza