In November, the dean of the University of Santo Tomas law school said the first petition against Marcos "is bound to collapse once evaluated by the Comelec." “We respect the right of every disillusioned group to take whatever legal action they think would best serve their own agenda, as we also expect them to respect our right to be heard,” Rodriguez said in a statement last month. The Marcos camp did not respond to VOA’s request for comment, but spokesperson Victor Rodriguez has repeatedly called the petitions “nuisance.” The late dictator himself decreed the law when he had absolute power in the country and it is still being enforced today.
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Other petitions lodged with the commission seek Marcos’ disqualification based on the Philippine tax code that prohibits any official convicted of tax fraud from holding public office.
The petitioners argue that failing to pay income taxes is a crime of moral turpitude. Under Philippine election law, anyone sentenced for a crime involving moral turpitude is disqualified from seeking public office. The COMELEC should just do its mandated duty by the constitution and enforce the law period,” she said. “ appeal to the COMELEC to cancel, deny that certificate of candidacy filed by Bongbong because it is built on lies. jury in Hawaii ruled in favor of human rights victims and deemed Marcos responsible for human rights violations in the Philippines.įides Lim, spokesperson of Kapatid - Families and Friends of Political Prisoners, one of the petitioners, said Marcos “does not deserve a single minute in public office.” Thousands were killed, tortured or disappeared during the elder Marcos’ rule in the 1980s while his family amassed a personal fortune in the billions of dollars.
Although the petitions vary in legal tactics, the end goal is to prevent the younger Marcos from seeking the presidency. Human rights organizations formed to assist political prisoners and victims during the elder Marcos’ rule led the filing of the first petition Nov. The petitions ask the body to either cancel Marcos’ certificate of candidacy or to disqualify him due to a criminal conviction in 1997 over his failure to file income tax returns decades ago. The younger Marcos, who is widely known as “Bongbong” and is leading early poll surveys, is running on a ticket with President Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter, Sara Duterte, who seeks to become vice president.Ĭases against Marcos filed on behalf of the victims are piling up at the Commission on Elections, with the seventh, and most recent, filed in late November. “As we celebrate this significant event, we remember and pay our highest tribute to thousands of men and women who defiantly faced the late dictator and offered their lives to the cause of peace, freedom, and justice,” Alminaza said.Victims of human rights atrocities during former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ regime are attempting to block the looming presidential candidacy of his son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., by seeking his disqualification in the polls set for May. With the death of thousands of human rights defenders, labor leaders, peasants and students, the bishop described Marcos Sr’s government as a “brutal and murderous regime”. Its chairperson, Bishop Gerardo Alminaza of the San Carlos diocese, said the military rule led to the crackdown on activists, illegal arrests, detentions and torture. The Church People-Workers Solidarity (CWS), in a statement released Monday, said it joins the millions of Filipinos in remembering “one of the darkest periods” in the country’s history.
Ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Martial Law declaration, an alliance of church people and labor groups is remembering those who dedicated their lives against the dictatorship of the father of the country’s president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
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