President-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
CEBU CITY, Philippines – Two days before being sworn into the Malacañang, the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the disqualification petitions lodged against President-elect Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.
And for Marcos Jr., the decision virtually cleared the air of doubts and questions about his qualifications to run for the country’s most powerful position.
“Well that removes all the questions that they have raised as to my qualification to run for President. We knew it was coming. We didn’t know it would come now,” Marcos Jr. told reporters in Cebu on Tuesday, June 28.
“We can now proceed without that in the back of our heads,” he added.
The President-elect was in Cebu last Tuesday, June 28, to attend the mass oathtaking and thanksgiving ceremony of the Garcia-led 1Cebu party.
1Cebu endorsed the UniTeam tandem of Marcos Jr. and his runningmate, Vice President-elect Sara Duterte-Carpio. Both won with a landslide victory during the May 9 polls.
During Tuesday’s en banc (full court) session, 13 justices of the High Court voted for the dismissal of the petitions for disqualification and cancellation of Marcos Jr.’s certificate of candidacy (COC).
The decision was written by Associate Justice Rodil Zalameda.
There were two petitions filed before the SC – one for disqualification and another for the cancellation of Marcos Jr.’s COC.
The petition filed by Fr. Christian Buenafe, Fides Lim, Ma. Edeliza Hernandez, Celia Lagman Sevilla, Roland Vibal, and Josephine Lascano – aside from asking the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) to “enjoin and restrain” both houses of Congress from canvassing the votes of Marcos and proclaiming him as president” also assailed the January 17 and May 10 resolutions of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) dismissing for lack of merit their plea seeking the denial or cancellation of the COC of Marcos Jr. as well as their motion for reconsideration.
The other petition was filed by a group of martial law survivors led by Satur Ocampo and Bonifacio Ilagan, who also asked the SC to overturn the Comelec’s decision junking their disqualification case against Marcos.
Both petitions stemmed from Marcos Jr.’s 1995 tax case where he was sentenced to serve a total of seven years in prison and to pay a fine for violation of the National Internal Revenue Code.
In 1997, the Court of Appeals upheld the conviction but modified the penalty imposed by the lower court by removing the prison term and merely imposing a fine.
“The Court held that in the exercise of its power to decide the present controversy led them to no other conclusion but that respondent Marcos Jr. is qualified to run for and be elected to public office,” the SC Public Information Office said in a briefer. | with reports from INQUIRER.net
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