(BusinessWorld) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) has sent a summons to Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr. over the petition filed by taxpayers to cancel his candidacy for president.
The summons was issued on Nov. 11 and was set to be served on Nov. 12, the poll body’s spokesman James B. Jimenez told reporters in a Viber message.
“We are awaiting proof of service,” he said. “The respondent will have five days to file an answer.”
Mr. Jimenez on Thursday said it could take weeks to resolve a petition seeking to disqualify the namesake and only son of the late dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos, from the presidential race.
A group of taxpayers had asked the election body to block the presidential run of Mr. Marcos, saying he is ineligible to run for office after a trial court convicted him in 1995 for failing to pay his income taxes and for material misrepresentation in his candidacy paper.
His conviction by a trial court was upheld by the Court of Appeals and was never appealed before the Supreme Court, said the petition filed at the poll body. He is thus disqualified from holding any public office as he was found guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of violating the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), it said.
Mr. Marcos made false material representation in his certificate of candidacy when he stated that he has not been found liable for an offense which carries with it the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office, the petition states… Read More
