Marcos Jr. camp says Comelec has no jurisdiction over petition to void CoC

The camp of former senator Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said the Commission on Elections (Comelec) lacks jurisdiction over the petitions filed to cancel the certificate of candidacy of the presidential aspirant.

"You read the petition. In essence, they want the Comelec to annul the decision of the Court of Appeals.  Comelec has no jurisdiction in reviewing the decision of the Court of Appeals," Vic Rodriguez, chief of staff of Marcos Jr. said.

Rodriguez also said many lawyers have expressed intention to help in the case for free.

"They do not want their names to be mentioned, but I tell you, the moment this trash petition was filed, siguro, walang exaggeration, mga 500 abogado ang nag signify ng boluntaryong serbisyo na ipagtanggol si Bongbong Marcos (this is no exaggeration, there are 500 lawyers who have signified to voluntarily defend Bongbong Marcos)," he said.

The Comelec is set to tackle the petition on November 26.

Human rights groups and advocates as well as survivors of the Martial Law regime of Bongbong's father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, earlier asked the Comelec to cancel Marcos' COC based on his conviction on four criminal cases violating Tax Code.

The convictions involved Marcos' failure to file his Income Tax Returns from 1982 to 1985 when he was still a local government official of his home province of Ilocos Norte.

The petitioners argued that Marcos' conviction on these cases constitute a crime of moral turpitude and thus, disqualifies him as provided under Omnibus Election Law.

At least 10 more individuals also lodged a similar petition to cancel Marcos Jr.'s COC over false declaration that he is eligible to run even if he has prior convictions penalizing him with perpetual disqualification from holding public office.

Despite facing a petition to cancel his candidacy, Marcos, Jr. still topped the recent Social Weather Stations survey commissioned by Stratbase Institute.

Rodriguez, however, said that now is not the time to get caught up with numbers.

"We see these numbers as added motivation, inspiration. But we cannot be complacent and we continue on forming the best and strongest political alliance in preparation of the 2022 polls," he said.—LDF, GMA News