Junk BBM win, Left asks SC
Vice President Leni Robredo, not the son and namesake of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, should be the next occupant of Malacañang.
This was the bold contention of former congressman Satur Ocampo and several other veteran activists who endured the dark years of the Marcos dictatorship, when they asked the Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday to declare Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ineligible for the presidency.
In a 49-page petition for certiorari, the group challenged the two separate resolutions of the Commission on Elections that rejected their original disqualification case against Marcos.
The petition was filed a day after another group of martial law survivors and political detainees sought the high tribunal’s intervention to preclude the late dictator’s son from succeeding President Duterte by canceling his certificate of candidacy (COC).
“Marcos Jr. was already disqualified long before he filed his [COC]. Simply put, he should not have been allowed to run for public office to begin with,” the petitioners said.
‘Invalid votes’
“The electorate, by voting for a candidate who has notoriously proven his disqualification, is deemed to have waived their right to vote, rendering the votes invalid,” they added.
Marcos, whose vacation in Australia on Tuesday was greeted with protests by Filipinos living in Melbourne, is currently leading the partial and unofficial canvassing of votes by a wide margin.
“Considering that the votes cast in favor of a disqualified candidate are invalid, the winner, therefore, is the candidate who received the greatest number of valid votes,” the group said.
“If... Marcos Jr. [would] be disqualified as candidate..., then the candidate with the highest number of valid votes, in this case, Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo, shall assume the Office of the President of the Republic of the Philippines,” they told the high court.
Besides Ocampo, the other petitioners were former National Anti-Poverty Commission chair Liza Maza, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan secretary general Maria Carolina Araullo, Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law convenor Bonifacio Ilagan, and 14 Catholic nuns and political activists.
‘Perpetually disqualified’
The group echoed the argument of those disputing the legality of Marcos’ COC that the 1995 decision of a Quezon City court, which found him guilty beyond reasonable doubt of tax evasion, carried with it an accessory penalty that banned him perpetually from serving in government.
But they said that the 1997 ruling of the Court of Appeals that upheld the lower court’s decision should have been declared a “void judgment” as it saved Marcos from serving nine years behind bars.
The National Internal Revenue Code, which was enacted during the dictatorial regime of Marcos’ father in 1977, clearly meted out a prison term against individuals who violated it.
It also barred errant government officials from occupying any public post.
“Being perpetually disqualified from running for public office, Marcos Jr.’s votes are stray votes and should not be considered and counted,” the petitioners said.
They noted that Marcos was the vice governor and then governor of Ilocos Norte when he failed to pay taxes and file his income tax returns from 1982 to 1985.