NEWS

On November 29, 2021, the petition to disqualify former Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. from the 2022 presidential elections had already been raised to the First Division of the Commission on Elections.

Last October 6, 2021, the son of the late dictator, former president Ferdinand Marcos, and former first lady, Imelda Marcos, submitted his certificate of candidacy (COC) for the upcoming presidential race to pan out for the approaching year. Aggrieved at the past senator’s ambitions of following in his father’s footsteps of becoming the nation’s leader, numerous victims of the Martial Law imposed during the regime of his father came together to petition for Bongbong Marcos to be disqualified from running.

In particular, the disqualification case filed by Bonifacio Ilagan, Saturnino Ocampo, Maria Carolina Araullo, along with 15 other individuals against Marcos’ attempt to return to the palace had been raffled to the first division, and is currently handled by Commissioners Rowena Guanzon, Marlon Casquejo, and Aimee Ferolino.

The petition argues that Bongbong Marcos is “perpetually barred from seeking public office as a result of his 1995 tax evasion conviction.” This statement has also been asserted by previous cases in their stand against the dictator’s son. Apart from this, another ground cited for debarring Marcos from his bid to reinstate their family name to the presidential seat was the act of misrepresentation he committed in his COC.

In point of fact, the disqualification file of Ilagan submitted on November 17, 2021, was actually the fourth anti-Marcos case raffled to the division level. One of the cases asserted Marcos as a nuisance candidate, while the other two called for the nullification of his COC. All three cases were elevated to the second division of Comelec.

Moreover, the Akbayan Partylist announced that they too would be filing a case against Bongbong Marcos under the same grounds based on his Tax Code violation, prohibiting him from both holding, and running for any government post.

Despite all efforts of the public to prevent him from joining the 2022 presidential race as a candidate, Marcos still seems keen on his bid, understating the case as propaganda.