Concerned citizens and civil society groups on Wednesday submitted to the Commission on Elections more than 15,000 signatures supporting the petition to cancel Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s candidacy for president in the 2022 elections.
The Alliance of Women for Action Towards Reform led the submission of a statement of support along with signatures collected through change.org to the office of Comelec chairman Sheriff Abas backing the first petition to cancel Marcos' certificate of candidacy.
“We call on the Commission to exercise its constitutional mandate and favorably resolve the petition,” the group said in a letter to Abas.
“The facts and the law, as borne out by the answer and subsequent submissions of Respondent Marcos Jr., lead to no other conclusion,” it added.
The group supported the claim of the petitioners in the first COC cancellation complaint case against Marcos that he was ineligible to run for any public office as a Quezon City court in 1995 found guilty of failure to file income tax returns from 1982 to 1985.
"He violated the National Internal Revenue Code. Under the Tax Code, Marcos Jr. is perpetually disqualified from holding any public office, to vote and to participate in any election," the group said.
The petitioners in the first case also claimed that Marcos' certificate of candidacy contains "multiple false material representations" when he claimed that he was eligible to run for president despite being disqualified to do so.
Marcos' conviction for tax evasion also constitutes a crime involving "moral turpitude," which disqualifies him from being a candidate for any office under Section 12 of the Omnibus Election Code, they added.
The Comelec has yet to comment on the group's statement of support. The poll body's second division, which handles the first COC cancellation petition against Marcos, earlier said it would not entertain further interventions on the case.
Marcos is facing at least seven formal petitions to block his presidential bid for the 2022 elections.
ALSO READ:
EXPLAINER: How Bongbong Marcos Disqualification Cases Will Proceed
Bongbong Marcos Not a Degree Graduate of Oxford University: Filipino Alumni
Those Marcos Videos on TikTok are Rooted in Decades of Misinformation