(We yield this space to the statement of CARMMA due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
WE AT the Campaign Against the Return of the Marcoses and Martial Law are dismayed at the decision of the Commission on Elections’ First Division to junk our petitions to disqualify Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and allow him to run for president. However, we are not surprised.
It is utterly ridiculous to dismiss our petitions for “lack of merit.” This cop-out of a decision only raises more doubts after the delays in its release —especially after former Commissioner Rowena Guanzon revealed that “powerful” figures were working to delay the promulgation of the ponencia after Guanzon’s retirement. The exclusion of her separate opinion to disqualify Marcos Jr. in the decision only affirms these malevolent efforts.
We take exception to the First Division’s ruling that Marcos Jr.’s sentence to pay fines does not fall under the instances for disqualification, and that his failure to file tax returns “is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it.”
First, not only did Marcos Jr. consistently fail to file his income tax returns in 1982, 1983, 1984, and 1984 as vice government and eventually governor of Ilocos Norte: his own camp admitted during the preliminary conference that he did not pay before court the fines which were imposed upon him when he was found guilty of failure to file his income tax returns.
Anyone with a working logic would clearly see that this is inherently wrong. As former Commissioner Guazon states in her separate opinion, “such omission however has happened four (4) times, and for four (4) consecutive years” that they “reveal a deliberate intent to violate the law, a conscious design to evade a positive duty, and a wanton disregard of a legal and social duty.”
Such intent undeniably demonstrated a crime involving moral turpitude, and Marcos Jr. should be disqualified.
We at CARMMA stand with our petition — and we assert that a convicted criminal should not be allowed to run for any public office, especially the highest and most powerful position in the land.
Those who espouse “unity” and do not acknowledge accountability for their high crimes against the people are the real nuisance and swindlers in this country. Unity without justice is just impunity. Genuine love for country means rejecting dictator wannabes and defending our rights and freedoms.
