Carpio says Marcos’ junked DQ case can still be appealed before SC

It is still a long way for the junked disqualification case against presidential aspirant Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. as the decision could still be appealed before the Supreme Court, retired Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said Friday.

At the press conference of the launch of poll watcher application, "HOPE (Honest Open Philippine Elections) Boto Mo, Bantayan Mo," the panel was asked for reaction on the Commission on Elections First Division's decision to dismiss the last Eleksyon 2022 disqualification case against the former senator.

"There’s still an appeal to the en banc and from the en banc of Comelec, we can still appeal to the Supreme Court. So it’s still a long way," Carpio responded.

The ruling, signed by Comelec Commissioners Socorro Inting, Aimee Ferolino, and Aimee Torrefranca-Neri, junked the petition filed by Pudno Nga Ilokano (Ang Totoong Ilokano) due to lack of merit.

Carpio said he has yet to read the decision of the Comelec division.

The petitioners argued that Marcos was convicted eight times by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court (QC RTC) Branch 105 in 1995 for failure to file his income tax returns as governor of Ilocos Norte for taxable years 1982 to 1985 as well as for the latter’s failure to pay the corresponding deficiency taxes.

The Comelec division, however, stated that the non-filing of income tax returns is not a crime involving moral turpitude.

"If failure to file income tax return is considered alone, it would appear that it is not inherently wrong. This is supported by the fact that the filing of income tax return is only an obligation created by law and the omission to do so is only considered as wrong because the law penalizes it," the division said.

Leaders of the Akbayan party-list, who were also petitioning for Marcos' disqualification from the May 9 elections, had asked the Comelec en banc to reverse the dismissal of their petition last February.

One of the founders of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) also appealed the junking of the disqualification cases against Marcos. Abubakar Mangelen had said that the arguments of some petitioners were not tackled by the First Division in deciding on the case.

Marcos, the standard bearer of Partido Federal ng Pilipinas, has welcomed the dismissal of the disqualification case against him.

“Of course it is a good development and we are happy that it happened before we came up with the actual elections,” Marcos said in an ambush interview in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro.

His spokesman, Attorney Vic Rodriguez, said the decision only affirmed that Marcos "possesses all the qualifications needed to aspire for, campaign for and serve as president of the Republic of the Philippines." — RSJ/KBK, GMA News