Comelec junks 3 interventions in Marcos case

For causing “undue delay,” the Commission on Elections (Comelec) has denied all three interventions to the petitions against former senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s presidential run due to his tax evasion conviction.

The Comelec warned that it would not entertain other interventions while it resolved the petitions against Marcos’ certificate of candidacy (COC) citing the penalties under the tax code signed into law by his father, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Marcos was convicted by the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in 1995 for nonpayment of income taxes and nonfiling of income tax returns from 1982 to 1985 while he was governor of Ilocos Norte during his father’s regime. He was sentenced to nine years imprisonment and pay a fine of P72,000.

The Court of Appeals in 1997 upheld his conviction for failure to file tax returns but acquitted him of failure to pay income taxes. The appellate court removed the penalty of imprisonment but ordered Marcos to pay the fine and the deficiency income taxes with interest until fully paid.

The conviction became final in 2001 after Marcos withdrew his appeal with the Supreme Court.

Under the National Internal Revenue Code, a public official convicted of a tax offense faces the additional penalty of perpetual disqualification from running for public office and from voting.

In a ruling dated Dec. 13, the Comelec’s Second Division denied the motion for intervention filed by a group of taxpayers led by Dr. Rommel Bautista in support of the petition to cancel Marcos’ COC, as well as the motions filed by South Cotabato Gov. Reynaldo Tamayo and by the Partido Federal ng Pilipinas in defense of Marcos.

Comelec said allowing the interventions “shall unduly delay or prejudice the adjudication of the rights of the original parties in this case.”

Comelec found the motion filed by Bautista et al. on Nov. 8 to be a petition to cancel Marcos’ COC but “disguised as an intervention” since it was filed past the cut-off for COC cancellation.