By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
The fight to stay in contention for the presidency might be far from over for former senator Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Just the other day, party-list group Akbayan filed a motion for reconsideration (MR), seeking the reversal of the decision of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) First Division which dismissed the consolidated petitions to disqualify Marcos from the presidential race.
In the 16-page MR, Akbayan questioned whether the ruling was issued by “a validly-constituted Division” since only two commissioners of the First Division came up with the February 10 Resolution.
It will be recalled that the First Division’s presiding commissioner, Rowena Guanzon, revealed that she voted to disqualify Marcos but that the ponente of the case, Commissioner Aimee Ferolino, had allegedly delayed the release of the decision beyond the date of Guanzon’s retirement to invalidate her dissenting opinion.
Regardless of whether the accusation made by Guanzon is true or not, a huge shadow of doubt has been cast over the Comelec because of the suspiciously convenient manner by which the consolidated petitions against Marcos were dismissed.
In asking that the First Division ruling be voided and have the Comelec come up with an en banc decision on the case, Akbayan is actually tossing the poll body a lifeboat to save its integrity. As the single most powerful authority over the running of the May 9 presidential elections, Comelec should take this opportunity by the horns.
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I might not be the petitioner in these DQ cases nor be in any legal position to question the ruling penned by Ferolino, but, as a Filipino citizen and voter, I can’t help but be slighted.
How can I possibly not share the sentiments of the taxpaying public who finds it hard to swallow the prospect that by June 30, we could be bowing before a leader who has escaped the taxes we so painstakingly settle to the last centavo every year of our working lives?
That’s why Guanzon’s take on Marcos being guilty of “moral turpitude” because of repeatedly failing to file his income tax returns (ITRs) continues to echo like a bad chord.
Former Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares took exception to a line in Ferolino’s ruling which asserted that “the failure to file tax returns is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it.” Henares said that if Ferolino truly believed it is so, as applied to Marcos, she should try not to file her ITR and see if she won’t be answerable to the law.
As much as Manila Mayor Isko Moreno had been criticized over a P50-million campaign contribution “windfall” in 2016, he was the only government official I know who admitted publicly to campaign fund leftovers and paid his taxes for it.
By his example, Moreno stopped short of saying that Marcos’s having gotten away with a tax conviction and getting cleared by the Comelec to run for the highest position in the land could have a chilling effect. Who else would want to pay his taxes if there’s a double standard?
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