(BusinessWorld) The Commission on Elections (Comelec) on Thursday rejected three consolidated lawsuits seeking to disqualify the son and namesake of the late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos from the presidential race this year.

In a 41-page decision, the election body’s First Division ruled former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos, Jr.’s conviction for tax evasion in the 1990s did not involve wicked, deviant behavior.

“Is the failure to file tax returns inherently immoral? We submit that it is not,” according to a copy of the ruling written by election Commissioner Aimee P. Ferolino. “The failure to file tax returns is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it.”

Commissioner Marlon S. Casquejo, who signed the ruling, also wrote a separate 12-page opinion in which he said Mr. Marcos’s crime did not involve “moral turpitude.”

“We cannot justify such omission necessarily results in injustice; this is an overkill,” he said in his opinion, referring to the presidential bet’s failure to file tax returns. “We cannot link such omission to contravention of morals; this is an exaggerated innuendo.”